The life of Saint Hugh of Lincoln

THE LIFE OF SAINT HUGH OF LINCOLN,

QUARTERLY SERIES. VOLUME NINETY-NINE.

"99

KOKH A Ml'TON :
I'KINTEU BY JOHN UKIKKIN.

''ights reserved.

ST lU'c.H OF LINCOLN.
'ture by Lodovico da Parma, in the National Gallery. See p. 624.

THE LIFE OF SAINT HUGH
OF LINCOLN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH CARTHUSIAN LIFE
AND EDITED WITH LARGE ADDITIONS

HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.

LONDON : BURNS AND GATES, LIMITED.

NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO '. BENZIGER BROTHERS.
1898.

PREFACE.

THERE is a passage in Ruskin's Prttterifa, in which the
critic, while betraying perhaps some lack of apprecia-
tion for the work of other monastic bodies, speaks with
enthusiasm of the Carthusians, and declares that "they
have had a more directly wholesome influence on the
outer world than any other order of monks so narrow in
number and restricted in habitation."

" In their strength," he continues, " from the founda-
tion of the Order at the close of the eleventh century,
to the beginning of the fourteenth, they reared in their
mountain fastnesses, and sent out to minister to the
world a succession of men of immense mental grasp,
and serenely authoritative innocence ; among whom
our own Hugo of Lincoln, in his relations with Henry II.
and Cceur de Lion, is to my mind the most beautiful
sacerdotal figure known to me in history. The great
Pontiffs have a power which in its strength can scarcely
be used without cruelty, nor in its scope without error ;
the great saints are always in some degree incredible or
unintelligible ; but Hugo's power is in his own personal
courage and justice only; and his sanctity as clear,
frank, and playful as the waves of his own Chartreuse
well." 1

1 Prceterita, Hi. i. "The original building was grouped round a
spring in the rock, from which a rivulet was directed through every cell."
(Mr. Ruskin's footnote.)

PREFACE.

That this is no extravagant eulogy will be most
readily admitted by those who are best acquainted with
the life of St. Hugh, and with the religious history of
his times.

It is strange that so commanding and attractive a
personality should not yet have found an English
biographer to do justice to his memory. Of all our
mediaeval saints, there is not one in whom the man, as
distinct from the bishop or the ruler, is so intimately
known to us. Even St. Thomas of Canterbury, or
St. Anselm, are spectral and shadowy figures in
comparison. Hugh, thanks to the memoirs of his Bene-
dictine chaplain, stands before us in flesh and blood.
Despite its rather involved Latin, and its discursive
style, the Life of the Saint known as the Magna Vita, has
left us a portrait superior, for truth and vividness, even
to the sketch of his contemporary, Abbot Samson, in
the Chronicle of Jocelin de Brakelond. 1 And St. Hugh
was not merely a good healthy type of character, a
model ecclesiastic as ecclesiastics went in those days,
like the energetic Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds ; he was
all that, and he was a Saint besides. Not a narrow-
minded Saint by any means, if there can be such a
thing as a narrow-minded Saint, but still one in whose
history we meet at every turn the heroic example of
old-fashioned virtues of mortification, of prayerful-
ness, of charity, truth, and zeal.

The Life which is here presented to the reader is for
the most part a translation of the French Vie de St. Hugues
de Lincoln? which was published by a monk of the
Grande Chartreuse in 1890. From one cause or another
the production of the book in its present form has

>espite many inaccuracies of detail, much of the spirit of that
delightful chronicle is faithfully reproduced in Carlyle's Past and Present.

Vit dt St. Hugues, Chartreux, Evequt de Lincoln (11401200) par
un ReUgieiu de la Grande Chartreuse, Montreuil, 1890.

PREFACE. vii

entailed almost as much labour as the composition of
an original work would have done, and the Editor has
more than once been tempted to regret, when it was
too late, that he had not cut himself entirely free from
the trammels imposed by a rendering from another
language. The English version, however, had already
been made, and had become the property of the
Manresa Press before the duties of editorship de-
volved upon him. If the name of the translator does
not appear upon the title-page, the omission is not
due to any wish to ignore the service so rendered,
but only to the fact that in editing it for publication
very many changes have been made in the version
throughout, and parts of it even rewritten. It is
possible that a number of these changes might not be
regarded by the translator, or others, as changes for the
better, and it seems fairer to leave the responsibility
indeterminate than to assign any definite name to what
is really the work of more than one hand. If any
difference of style be detected between the earlier and
later portion of the book, it is chiefly to be referred to
the process of revision just spoken of. In the first few
chapters the French as originally translated has been
more closely adhered to, in the later the Editor has
allowed himself considerably greater latitude.

Although the Preface, the Appendices, and occa-
sionally portions of the text, of the French Life have
been omitted, the printed matter contained in the book
has been increased by more than one-third, i.e., by the
equivalent of more than two hundred pages of the
present volume. This is due to the large number of
additional topics which have been dealt with in the text
or in the notes, a list of which, under the heading
Additions, will be found in the Index. To the substantial
facts of the history of St. Hugh's career, the Editor
can claim to have contributed little that is new.

PREFACE

Perhaps the most interesting of the points here touched
upon for the first time is the connection between the

ret of this biography and the revelations of the
monk of Eynsham. 1 The fact that St. Hugh must have
been personally acquainted with many of those whose
fate in the next world is there described, lends emphasis
to the share taken by him in the publication of the
vision. Again, a rather important chronological error,
which has led Mr. Dimock, and with him all subsequent
English writers, to antedate by five years the coming of
St. Hugh to England, and hence to make the Saint five
years older than he really was, has at last, I think, been
finally disposed of. 2 The author of the French Life had
already rectified this mistake, but his correction is now
further justified by an extract from the Bruton Chartu-
lary, and by the indisputable evidence of an entry in
the Norman Exchequer Rolls, to which attention had
not previously been directed. 3

The Editor's principal aim, however, has been
to supplement the information given by the French
biographer in those features of the Life which have
a special bearing upon English history or English
institutions, or which depend upon local knowledge
not easily accessible to a monk writing at a distance,
and with the restrictions imposed by the Rule of

1 Sec pp. 348, seq., and Appendix L, pp. 617, seq.
1 See pp. 90, seq., and Appendix A, p. 599.

1 It is interesting to note the links which connect our English Saints

one with another, and I may call attention here, amongst minor novelties.

lo the evidence which shows that St. Hugh was personally acquainted with

m of Sempringham. The learned doyen of the Bollandists, Kather

Smedt, in a visit to Oxford, having very kindly examined the Codex

gby 360, transcribed for me the passage printed in the footnote on page

I may also, perhaps, notice the fact that the Cistercian

. Peter of Tarentaise, to whom, as recounted on pp. 6064,

Hugh was so affectionately devoted, was himself trained up. in the

jrljr days of Citeaux. by the Englishman who was practically the founder

of the Order. St. Stephen Harding.

PREFACE. ix

the Grande Chartreuse. That must be my excuse
for dwelling, perhaps somewhat unduly, upon such
questions as perpetual vicarages, St. Hugh's grants
of churches, the right of sanctuary, the character of
Henry II., &c., and particularly on the Cathedral, the
Jewry, and the leper hospital of Lincoln, the site of the
house where St. Hugh died in London, and of the
tomb where his remains first reposed.

But whatever may be gleaned in this way from
antiquarian researches or local histories, as well as the
few additional details supplied by Giraldus Cambrensis
and the chroniclers, must all be regarded as little more
than a commentary upon the facts of the great Latin
Life, commonly known as the Magna Vita S. Hugonis.
That is the one record of supreme importance, without
which no Life of St. Hugh worthy of the name could
ever have been written. To the Rev. James Dimock,
who edited the text of the Magna Vita in 1864, for the
Rolls Series, the credit is due of having first clearly
proved that the author was a certain Benedictine monk
named Adam, the chaplain of the Saint, and that at a
later period, when Abbot of Eynsham, this same Adam
gave evidence before the Papal delegates in the cause
of his master's canonization. The correctness of
Mr. Dimock's conclusions as to the authorship has since
been placed beyond a doubt by the testimony, recently
discovered, of a contemporary writer. 1 From what
Abbot Adam himself tells us, we learn that he did not
enter the Bishop's service until November, 1197, a
little more than three years before St. Hugh's death. 2

1 Ralph Coggeshall, the Chronicler. The passage is quoted on pp. 350,

35 1 -

2 He records that he entered St. Hugh's household three years and five
days before the Bishop's death, and during all that time there was only
one night that he did not sleep under the same roof with his master. The
minute accuracy of these details is characteristic of the man.

PREFACE.

He seems, however, to have been a man of great
powers of observation, and to have possessed a remark-
ably retentive memory. As St. Hugh spoke freely and
unreservedly about his own past history to those whom
he trusted, the result has been that the chaplain was
able to gather from his patron's own lips a singularly
complete account of all that had befallen him. This he
supplemented by information gleaned from various
other sources. He paid sundry visits to the Charter-
house of Witham, and it was the Witham monks
themselves who first begged him to undertake the task
of writing the Life of their former Prior. Even the
persecution of the Church during the reign of John,
which drove Adam, with many another worthy ecclesi-
astic, into temporary exile, was in some sense of
assistance to him in the composition of his book. For
three months of this time he took up his quarters in
Paris with Raymund, a connection of the Saint, who
was afterwards Canon of Lincoln and Archdeacon of
Leicester. We cannot doubt that Raymund, who, more
than ten years before had entertained the Bishop himself
and this same chaplain, Adam, when on their way to
the Grande Chartreuse, 1 will have been able to add
something to his store of anecdotes about the early years
of the kinsman he delighted to honour.

But what doubles and trebles the value of all this
material, is the conviction, which no careful student of
the Magna Vita can fail to carry away, of the absolute
sincerity and truthfulness of the writer. Mr. Dimock,
who, as an Anglican clergyman of no very advanced
views, might not unnaturally be suspicious of the
stories of miracles which abound in the Life, expresses

1 They spent several weeks at the Grande Chartreuse, and in the
neighbourhood. This visit must have afforded the chaplain many oppor-
itie of ascertaining the facts of the Bishop's early life from those who
knew him in former days.

PREFACE.

his opinion of the author's veracity in the strongest
terms. "We may look," he says, "upon much of what
this volume contains, almost as if it had been penned
by Hugh's own hand." Or again, speaking of the
chaplain's perfectly candid account of the " snubbing "
administered to him by St. Hugh in a dream, in regard
of a miraculous apparition of the Holy Child Jesus in
the Blessed Eucharist, 1 Mr. Dimock remarks : " There
were few monks indeed in those days, who writing
the history of a beloved and revered friend, already
regarded as a saint, and famous for miracles, . . . would
have told this story as our author has done. We could
only expect that a story so glorifying to the hero . . .
would have been at the best simply related, as he had
been told it by one of the two actors in it, with no
shadow of doubt cast upon it. ... As it is, he has
given us a proof of his rigid accuracy and truthfulness,
than which it seems to me scarcely possible to imagine
a more strong and convincing one."

" I might add much to the same purpose," Mr.
Dimock continues, " but it seems to me needless.
I shall just remark, however, that in much of what
our author relates, he is fully corroborated by con-
temporary history ; as, for instance, in the curious and
somewhat marvellous narrative of the supposititious
child related in lib. iv. cap. 5 ; where, while of course
he enters more into particulars, his main facts will be
found confirmed by the certain testimony of entries in
the public records of the kingdom. 2 So far as I can
see, there is every reason to consider him a most
truthful and accurate writer." 3

1 See p. 559, and pp. 340, seq.

2 See below, p. 307. In Mr. Dimock's notes to this passage full evidence
is given of what he has here asserted. (Magna Vita, pp. 170, seq.)

3 Preface, pp. xlvi. xlvii. Again Mr. Dimock says, p. Ixv. : "I have
spoken strongly and confidently of the author's accuracy and truthfulness,"
and then he proceeds to indicate a few errors into which Abbot Adam has

PREFACE

This question of the trustworthiness of our chief,
and in m.my matters our only authority, is one of such

:iary importance, that I have more than once called
attention in the course of the Life, to evidence which
confirms it or explains apparent difficulties. In
particular the reader may be referred to the large type
notes which follow chapters iii. and v. of the fourth
book, 1 relating respectively to the cure of sufferers from
St. Anthony's fire and to the miracle of the bleeding
loaves. In both the one case and the other, a super-
ficial critic who was no believer in miracles, would be
tempted to conclude that the author at last stood
convicted, flagrant* delicto, of a barefaced imposture.
But as pointed out in the notes in question, I venture
to think that a more careful examination of the evidence
will lead to an exactly opposite conviction. It is a
striking thing to notice how Abbot Adam's belief in
miracles in no way deters him from recording with
perfect sincerity the points which tell against them,
and the same tendency may be remarked in several
other instances which it is needless to specify in detail. 2
After all it would be strange indeed, if one who stood
in such a relation to St. Hugh as Abbot Adam did,
were not conspicuous for his straightforwardness and
honesty. One of the Saint's most striking virtues was

fallen. Adam certainly seems to have made a slip in assigning fifteen
instead of fourteen years to St. Hugh's pontificate, but, on the other hand,
in asserting the presence of William the Lion at the Saint's funeral, the
biographer seems to me to be right, and Hoveden and Mr. Dimock to be
wrong. At any rate, there are four independent and contemporary
authorities to be set against Hoveden's unsupported statement (See below.
P- 547. n.) Mr. Dimock only mentions one other supposed error in the
Magma Vita, and in this case the confusion may be due to some blunder
of the copyists.

1 Pp. 478, seq. and 505. seq.

One conspicuous illustration may be found in Adam's account of the
cure of thesc-called witch of Bugden. (See below, pp. 402, 403 ; Magn*
vtla, pp. 267369.)

PREFACE.

his punctiliousness in point of truth ; l it is not likely
that so keen a judge of men would have chosen for
his constant companion, his confessor, and his most
intimate friend, a Religious who in this respect was
unworthy of his confidence. 2

It may perhaps be objected that a cloud hangs over
Abbot Adam's last days, and that he died a disgraced
man. To this I can only answer that we have absolutely
no clear evidence which would warrant our holding
him guilty of any grave moral fault. It is stated in
the Dunstable annals that Adam, Abbot of Eynsham,
in 1228 was deposed from his office by Hugh (de Wells),
Bishop of Lincoln, " as a perjured person, and a
manifest dilapidator of the goods of the abbey." As
Mr. Dimock points out, it is not even certain that this
may not be another Abbot of Eynsham of the same
name, who succeeded the biographer of St. Hugh.
That two Adams should rule the monastery in succes-
sion would be a strange coincidence, but it is not
absolutely impossible, for the name Adam was not
then uncommon. Two other Abbot Adams besides our
chaplain appear in the Magna Vita ; one was Abbot of
Driburgh, who became a Carthusian at Witham, and
was the chosen admonitor of St. Hugh, 3 the other was
a Cistercian and Abbot of Perseigne, which St. Hugh
visited on his way through Normandy in April, ngg. 4
Again, it is unfortunately only too true that there were

1 See Magna Vita, p. 197, and below, p. 304, p. 566, n. 2, p. 444, and
p. 224.

2 We have no choice between believing that Abbot Adam was either,
as everything indicates, a most scrupulously truthful writer, or that he was
utterly insincere. Both in his account of the revelation of the monk of
Eynsham, written in 1196, and in the Magna Vita, written about seventeen
years later, the chaplain makes profession directly and indirectly of
exceptional care and accuracy. (See below, p. 619, cf. pp. 406, 550 ; Magna
Vita, pp. 97, 221, &c.)

3 See below, p. 240. 4 Ib. p. 450, n.

xu i'REb'ACL.

often cabals and factions in monastic houses at this
period, and where discipline had grown relaxed, an Abbot
who for strictness or any other reason became unpopular,
might easily be made the victim of misrepresentation. 1
Even such a man as Abbot Samson in the vigour of his
age, had a very hard battle to fight with the unruly
portion of his community at Bury St. Edmunds before
he convinced them that he meant to be master. More-
over, we seem to discover the germ of some hostile
feeling at Eynsham against St. Hugh's chaplain in the
passage of Ralph Coggeshall, which will be found
quoted below on pp. 350, 351. ** Many of the Eynsham
monks," he tells us, "decry the vision," i.e., the
vision with which Adam had to some extent identified
himself. But Ralph did not sympathize with them, and
he describes Adam as "a most grave and religious
man; " adding, " I do not believe that such a man, so
religious and so learned, would have written these
statements until they had been sufficiently tested."
This is strong testimony, and all the stronger from the
fact that Ralph Coggeshall was a Cistercian and would
not have been prejudiced in favour of St. Hugh's
Benedictine chaplain. As to the text of the Magna Vita,
I have made no attempt to revise that printed by
Mr. Dimock in the Rolls Series. This was based upon
only two manuscripts, both imperfect,- but it is an

1 It does not seem necessary to suppose that iheperjurus and dilapidate
represent two distinct charges. If Abbot Adam had " manifestly wasted"
the goods of the monastery, he would thereby have been ipso facto
accounted perjurtu, i.e.. unfaithful to his oath to administer thriftily the
property with which he was entrusted. A possible instance of indiscreet
generosity on the part of the Abbot will be found referred to on p. 466.
Moreover, Bishop Hugh de Wells had the reputation of being no friend to
the monks, and he may have been more ready to listen to the malicious
representations of an evilly-disposed faction at Eynsham, than other
prelates would have been.

Bodleian, Digby, 165 of the thirteenth century ; and Paris, Bib. Nat.
5575. Fonds Latin; the Paris MS. fortunately made good the portions
which were lacking in the English one.

PREFACE.

excellent text. Since Mr. Dimock's volume appeared
other copies have become known. The whole of the
Magna Vita was printed a few years since by the
Carthusians in their Ephemendes from a copy revised in
the seventeenth century by Dom Le Vasseur, and very
long extracts may be found in Dom Le Couteulx'
Annales Ordinis Carthusiensis. Besides this there is a
manuscript which is or was in the possession of
Earl Brownlow, 1 another in the National Library at
Brussels, 2 and a third, which formerly belonged to
the Chartreuse of Gaillon, in the municipal library of
Louviers, No. 21. There seem to be few passages,
however, in the Magna Vita, in which a difference of
reading in the MSS. can be of any material interest. 3

In comparison with the Magna Vita, all the other
materials for the Life of St. Hugh are insignificant.
The Vita Sti. Hugonis by Giraldus Cambrensis is
valuable as the work of one who knew the Saint well
and who possessed the literary skill necessary to draw
a clear and telling portrait in a comparatively limited
space. A very large portion of the work, however, is
taken up with the miracles worked at the tomb of the
Saint, and the sketch seems to have been produced
with some special reference to the occasion of his
canonization, much as it is customary even at the
present day to publish a short account of the life and

1 Partly collated by Mr. Dimock in the seventh volume of the Works of
Giraldus Cambrensis.

2 Described by the Bollandists in their Catalogus Codicum Hagio-
graphicorum Bruxellensium, vol. i. p. 188.

3 With regard to a question of chronology already alluded to in this
Preface, I have to thank Father Poncelet, the Bollandist, for examining
for me the reading of the Brussels codex. Unfortunately that manuscript
lacks one leaf, which turns out to contain the very sentence most
wanted ; but in another detail the substitution of the word annos for dies,
referred to below, p. 72, note, the Brussels manuscript supports the
Carthusian chronology as against Mr. Dimock. Indeed there can be no
possible doubt that in this matter the English editor is in error.

i 'KEF ACE.

miracles of any new Beato. 1 The character sketch
introduced by Giraldus into his Lives of the Bishops
of Lincoln in the form of a comparison and contrast
between St. Hugh and Baldwin, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, is almost more valuable than anything else which
the Welsh Archdeacon has told us of his friend. It is
interesting to learn from so thoroughly competent a
judge that while Baldwin was affatim literatus, a well-
educated man, 2 Hugh was litcmtissimus, a born scholar ;
after which Giraldus goes on : " The Archbishop was
slow and sparing of speech, Bishop Hugh a pleasant
companion full of talk and fun ; the one was gloomy and
timid, the other bright and cheerful of heart, as if his
mind were free from cares. The one was a Diogenes,
the other a Democritus. The one was slow and self-
restrained in his anger as in all other things, the other
could easily be roused even upon a small occasion. The
Archbishop was smooth-spoken, lukewarm, and easy-
going, Hugh on the other hand was brusque, full of
enthusiasm, and a strict disciplinarian." 3

All this quite fits in with what we are told rather
more in detail in the Magna Vita, as also does the
statement made by Giraldus that St. Hugh was rather
too rigid and uncompromising when first he entered
upon the administration of his diocese, but that after-
wards he mellowed, and while continuing to treat
himself as rigorously as ever, made all possible allow-
ances for the less spiritual ideas of his fellow-bishops
and his clergy, not holding himself aloof, but conde-
scending to their weakness.

Cf. p. 571, below.

* This testimony is the more remarkable when we note that Bishop
Stubbs describes Baldwin as " one of the most distinguished scholars of his
lime." It does not seem to me, however, that the statement of Walter
Map, to which he refers, warrants so high an eulogy.

1 This is very much in accordance with the account of Archbishop
Baldwin given in the revelations of the monk of Eynsham.

PREFACE. xvii

Beside the Life by Giraldus, there are other almost
contemporary accounts of the Saint preserved in the
Vita Metrica 1 and the Legenda. The Metrical Life
seems to be based upon Giraldus and, apart from the
poetical amplifications of the writer, contains nothing
fresh except an interesting description of the new
Cathedral of Lincoln. This elaborate piece of versifi-
cation, which from a literary point of view is by no
means contemptible, seems to have been composed
shortly after the canonization in 1220. The author is
unknown.

The Legenda was probably intended primarily to be
used for the lessons of the Divine Office. 2 It exists in
slightly varying forms in several different MSS., but
as in the Life by Giraldus, the accounts of miracles
seem to occupy a wholly disproportionate amount of
space as compared with the facts of the Saint's history.
By a curious process of confusion and misapprehension,
of which I have given some account in a footnote on
p. 569, a portion of this document has come to be cited
in the pages of the French Vie de St. Hugues? as a

1 The Vita Metrica, a poem of rather more than a thousand hexameter
verses, was edited by Dimock with an admirable Introduction and notes
in 1 86 1. The Legenda may be found in the Works of Giraldus Cambrensis,
Rolls Series, vol. vii.

2 In a fourteenth century Sarum Breviary, which formerly belonged to
the Augustinian Bonhommes at Asheridge (Bucks), and is now preserved at
Stony hurst College, may be found the lessons as actually read both on
St. Hugh's principal feast and on that of his translation. They consist of
very minute sections taken from the document which I have called the
Legenda, but, as far as they go, they adhere closely to the text. (See below,
Appendix M, p. 622.) My thanks are due to the Rector of Stonyhurst
College for his kindness in allowing this valuable MS. to be sent to me in
London.

3 P- 53> an d Preface, p. xiv. It would be easy to make a long list of
authors, ancient and modern, who have dealt more or less ex professo with
the history of St. Hugh. Some of these, like Dorlandus, Surius, and
Maurocurtius, may be found cited in Mr. Dimock's Prefaces. Others, like the
paper in Mr. J. A. Froude's Short Studies of Great Subjects, are merely hastily

1)

PREFACE

fragment of an otherwise unknown Life of the Saint
by a certain Stephen tic Longothona, 1 Archdeacon of
Lincoln. Both book and author are alike apocryphal.

The only new manuscript authority which has been
of any use to me in preparing the present Life is
Cotton Roll, xiii. 27, for a knowledge of which I am
indebted to Mr. Bickley of the Manuscript Room of
the British Museum. It contains a relatively complete
copy of the Report of the Papal Commissioners appointed
to investigate the miracles submitted for canonization.
Another but imperfect copy of the same Report, differing
somewhat in arrangement, is preserved in Harleian
MS. 526. I have made considerable use of the Cotton
Roll in the chapter on the miracles and canonization
of St. Hugh.

Among modern contributions to the history of
St. Hugh's doings in England, I must confess especial
obligations to some notes by Mr. E. H. Bates in
Somersetshire Notes and Queries for March, 1897. The
valuable information there given concerning the eviction

written magazine articles. There is a good summary of the most striking
features of the Life given in two articles by Mr. J. Walton, now Mr. J.
Walton, Q.C., in The Month, 1872-3, and the book called Cloister Life in
thf days of Richard Coeur de Lion, by Dean Spence, may be cited as a
sympathetic sketch of his career from an Anglican stand-point. There is
even an Anglican work of fiction, Forest Outlaws, in which St. Hugh of
Lincoln is made to play a principal part. So far as I have seen, however,
none of these various accounts add anything to the facts of the Life
otherwise known to us. It is curious that even amongst Carthusian writers
much confusion formerly prevailed. In MS. Addit. 17,085, at the British
Museum, is preserved a Chronicle drawn up by Dom F. G. Schwengel,
Prior of the Charterhouse near Dantzig. The section devoted to England
adds nothing to our materials, but contains many errors. The date,
however, of St. Hugh's coming to England seems to be correctly assigned
to 1180. (MS. Addit. 17,085, pp. 336. 237.)

1 A the reader may easily guess, Stephen de Longothona is only a
corruption of the name Stephen Langton. Archbishop Langton, as
president of the canonization inquiry, seems to have been credited with the
authorship of the report partly incorporated in the Legtnda.

PREFACE.

of the residents of Witham on the arrival of the
Carthusians, came to m,y knowledge too late to be
made available in its proper place. A summary of it,
however, will be found in Appendix A, p. 599. l

The late Archdeacon Perry's Life of St. Hugh of
Avalon, has a claim to be mentioned here as the only
English Life of the Saint previously in existence. That
the author had a genuine admiration for St. Hugh, and
has produced a spirited account of many incidents in
his career, may be readily admitted. None the less,
Archdeacon Perry was absolutely out of sympathy with
the religious life of the middle ages, and his unceasing
misrepresentations of and carpings against a system,
which the vast majority of those who claim the name of
Christian still hold sacred, make his work, in the opinion
of the present writer at least, very exasperating reading.
It has often been hard to resist the temptation of com-
menting upon his various utterances, but I have wished
to avoid giving an unnecessarily controversial tone to
this volume, and for the most part I have refrained. 2

Of a very different character from Archdeacon Perry's
work are the various prefaces and articles in which
Mr. Dimock has discussed the history of the great
Bishop of Lincoln, and of the Cathedral which is his
monument. No one has done so much as Mr. Dimock
to make St. Hugh better known to the nation for whose
forefathers he came to labour, and it is a pleasure to bear

1 Here again a more minute knowledge of the facts fully bears out the
general accuracy of Abbot Adam's account in the Magna Vita.

2 Some of Archdeacon Perry's statements have been noticed on pages
37, 42, 44, 189, and 320, and I am glad to be able to state that in his recently
published volume on Lincoln in the Diocesan Histories Series, he with-
drew the assertion complained of in the note on p. 189, about St. Hugh's
supposed dispensation from fasting to those who celebrated a late Massi
It need hardly be said that in speaking as I have done in the pages which
follow of Canon, rather than Archdeacon, Perry, I was writing in ignorance
of his promotion to the higher dignity.

t'HLi

witness that this excellent scholar's criticism is generally
accurate, well-informed, and moderate in tone. His
remarks upon the trustworthiness of the Abbot Adam
of Eynsham have already been cited, and now I propose
to quote a somewhat lengthy extract from the same
Preface to the Magna Vita in commendation of the
Saint himself. The eloquent and impressive words of
this Anglican clergyman will perhaps come home with
more force than any eulogy of a Catholic writer, who
necessarily accepts the Pope's Bull of Canonization as
a guarantee of heroic virtue. It is thus that Mr. Dimock
portrays the character of the great Burgundian Bishop
of Lincoln. 1

" I must not attempt to trace his career as Bishop
of Lincoln : to do it, however briefly, would extend this
Preface beyond all reasonable limits. It must suffice
to say what not only this Life, but every contemporary
mention of his doing as a Bishop helps to prove that
a more self-denying, earnest, energetic, and fearless

1 Even Mr. Dimock does not escape all pitfalls. Witness the following
footnote, which, it is only fair to say, occurs in the earliest of his contribu-
tions to the history of our Saint the Preface to the Metrical Life. ' ' Some
of his jokes were not always in the most accurate episcopal good taste,
according to our more refined notions. His slapping the face, for instance,
of the aged candidate for Confirmation (as related infra, lines 760764),
requires much memory of the then rudeness of manners, before we can at
all reconcile our minds to such an antic of a Bishop, and such a Bishop,
on such an occasion." Mr. Dimock is evidently unaware that the alapa or
buffet forms part of the ordinary rite of Confirmation, and is intended to
be symbolical of the endurance which is to be expected of a soldier of
Christ. It is closely parallel to the blow which, as the Pontificate directs,
in the Benedict tmvi militis, is to be given to the candidate for knight-
hood, with the words, Exciteris a somno militice, &c. The striking of the
knight with a sword has no doubt a similar signification. (The story in
question will be found on p. 191. Cf. Giraldus. Opera, vii. p. 05, Vita
:<a > M. 735765-) No doubt St. Hugh thought it desirable that this
exceptionally ignorant and obstinate rustic should not interpret his act as a
mere playful caress. I am informed that among the negroes, Bishops often
find it necessary to administer this slap with n certain amount of vigour, if
they wish the rite to be treated seriously by the recipient of the sacrament.

PREFACE. xxi

Bishop has seldom, if ever, ruled the diocese of Lincoln,
or any other diocese whatever. He brought with him
all his Carthusian simple devotedness to God's service,
all the ' Carthusian contempt for the things of this
world. Nowhere, perhaps, but in a Carthusian cell,
could such a man as Hugh of Lincoln have been
formed. He seems to stand alone amongst the bishops
of his day, all of whom, more or less, were creatures of
the Court ; good and holy men, it may be, but men
of policy and expediency, not the men to cope with the
rough self-willed warrior nobles, who could endure no
opposition to their tyranny over all below them not
the men to withstand such monarchs as Henry II. and
Richard I. in their determined encroachments on the
rights of the Church. Hugh was that rare man, who
was a match, and more than a match for them all.
Once sure of the straight path of duty, no earthly
influence, or fear, or power, could stop him : he never
bated an inch even to such opponents ; and while
fighting and beating them, still, all the while, won and
retained their admiration and reverence. To a stern
determination of purpose, a reckless fearlessness of
consequences, he united, in rare combination, a cool
and excellent judgment, and a clever, ready tact.
Always clearly seeing and steadily pursuing the best
and wisest course of action, no one ever could more
cleverly do and say the right thing, at the right time,
in the right way. As Bishop of Lincoln, moreover, he
was no such sour ascetic as we might perhaps imagine
from his Carthusian training. Giraldus Cambrensis,
who spent some three years at Lincoln during Hugh's
pontificate, and must have seen and known much of
him, describes him, though harsh and hot-tempered and
rigid, yet full of talk and joyousness and fun ; and there
is much in the present Life, and elsewhere, that proves
this portrait of him to be no unfaithful one. These

CONTENTS

BOOK II

THE FIRST YEARS OF EPISCOPACY

1186 1189.

page

Chap I. St. Hugh is appointed Bishop of Lincoln . 127

II. Consecration and Enthronement . 135

III. The Swan of St. Hugh . . 141

IV. The Bishop and his Clergy . 148
Note on the Lincoln Canons and Ceremonial . 158

V. The Affair of the Grand Forester . 162

VI. The Cathedral of Lincoln . . 171

Note on the Architecture of Lincoln Cathedral . 182

VII. His Episcopal Ministry . . .187

,, VIII. The Friend of Little Children and Lepers . 195

Note on the Lazar-House of the Holy Innocents

at Lincoln ..... 203

IX. His charity for the dead .... 206
Note on post-mortem absolutions and " absolution

crosses "..... 216

,, X. A Carthusian Bishop .... 220

Note on St. Hugh's regard for Church ceremonial 233

XI. His Retreats at Witham . -237

XII. Preparations for the Third Crusade. Death of

King Henry II. . . . . 248

Note on Henry II. in the Prophecy of Merlin . 254

BOOK III.

ST HUGH OF LINCOLN AND RICHARD OF THE LION HEART.
11891199.

Chap. I. Richard I. of England . .259

II. Troubles in England . . 2 6g

Note on the alleged murder of Children by
the Jews, and on St. Hugh's relations with
William Longchamp . . 385

III. The first Conflicts between the Bishop and the

King . 2QO

Note on St. Hugh and the Abbey of 31. Albans . 298

CONTENTS.

page

Chap. IV. The Justice of the Bishop and the Justice of God 303

Note on the grievance of Giraldus Cambrensis,

and on " Perpetual Vicars " . . . 314
V. Delegate of the Holy See . . 328
Note on Professor Maitland and Papal delega-
tions in England .... 337
,, VI. The Euchapstic Visions of St. Hugh . . 340
Note on the Visions of the Monk of Eynsham . 348
,, VII. The King is conquered by the Bishop . . 357
Note on the constitutional importance of St.

Hugh's Resistance .... 370

VIII. Pope Innocent III. . . 374

IX. The Affair of the Canons of Lincoln . . 386

Note on Saints as Landowners . . . 397

,, X. The cure of many Possessed Persons . . 399

Note on St. Hugh's attitude towards the

miraculous ..... 405

,, XI. Providential consolations .... 410
Note on St. Hugh's theory of the Rights of

Sanctuary ..... 420

XII. Death of Richard I. . . 425

BOOK IV.

THE GLORY OF THE SAINT BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH.
1199 I2OO.

Chap. I. The beginning of the Reign of King John . 441
,, II. The Peace of Les Andelys. St. Hugh's journey

to France ..... 453

Note on St. Hugh and the University of Oxford . 464

,, III. The Bishop of Lincoln at the Grande Chartreuse 467
Note on St. Anthony's Fire and the sufferers

cured of it . . . . . 478

,, IV. From the Grande Chartreuse to Cluny . . 484

V. From Cluny to London . . . . 495

Note on the miracle of the Bleeding Loaves . 505

,, VI. His last illness . . . . .11

CUXTEM'S.

Chap VII The Death of St. Ihih 524

c on the London Residence of the Bishops

of Lincoln 534

,. VIII The Funeral of St. Hugh 54

Note on the Site of St. Hugh's Tomb . . 555

IX. Canonization of St. Hugh . 55 8
Note on Miracles . *- 574

X. Translation of the relics of St. Hugh. The

Charterhouse of St. Hugh at Parkminster . 579
Note on St. Hugh's translation, and the narrative

preserved of it . . . 59

Appendix A.
B.

C.
D.
E.

., F.
G.
H.

'.' J
K.

., L.
M.

,, N.
o

INDEX
COKRI

APPENDIX.

The Coming of the Carthusians to Witham
Profession of Obedience to the Archbishop

Canterbury. Seals
St. Hugh's Enthronement at Lincoln
Brother Gerard of Nevers
Henry II. 's Benefactions to Religious Orders
The Jews .
William de Monte and the Lincoln Schools

St. Hugh and the Lepers

St. Hugh's dealings with Women

St. Hugh and the Party of Prince John .

St. Hugh's Grants of Churches .

The Vision of the Monk of Eynsham .

The Liturgical Memorials of St. Hugh .

St. Hugh in Art .

Walter Map and St. Peter of Tarentaise

of

599

604
606
607
608
609
611
612
613
615
616
617
621
624
625

627
651

BOOK I.

FROM THE BIRTH OF ST. HUGH TO HIS ELECTION
TO THE SEE OF LINCOLN.

1140 1186.

CHAPTER I.

THE BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS OF ST. HUGH.

NEAR the borders of Dauphin^ and Savoy, the lovely
and fertile valley of Graisivaudan opens out and then
narrows again, enclosing the townships of Pontcharra
and Saint-Maximin, and offering to the spectator the
most charming of landscape pictures. Whether he
follows the course of the beautiful River Isere, or
climbs the mountain slopes clothed with rich vineyards
and rising gradually in terraces as they lead him to
the heights above, he will meet everywhere with a
succession of charming views, varying from moment to
moment, but always nobly framed in a background of
gigantic rocks and snowy summits belonging to the
distant Alps.

To the interest of this beautiful situation is added
that of its historical memories, for the ruins, which
stand up here and there, in the midst of the smiling
vegetation, carry the mind back to ages long passed
away. Especially are to be remarked the remains of two
castles, once the cradles of two heroes, who, separated
from each other by an interval of three centuries, were
both equally, though in different ways, the pride and
glory of their country. The one displayed a courage
in the service of the Church, no less admirable thaii
that of the other in the defence of France. If one of
them is justly admired as " the knight without fear and
without reproach," the other, as his life will bear
witness, may as justly be called " the bishop without
B

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

fear and without reproach." The Chevalier Bayard
may perhaps be better known in profane history, which
deals by preference with warlike exploits ; but the name
of Hugh of Avalon shines with greater lustre in the
history of the Church, and it is surrounded also by
that incomparable halo of glory which belongs only to
servants of God, raised upon our altars for the venera-
tion of the whole Catholic world.

The Castle of Avalon, 1 in which the first years of
our Saint's life were passed, belonged, at the beginning
of the twelfth century, to a family whose coat of arms
gave testimony to their ancient lineage. According to
Chorier, 2 it bore " upon a field, or, the Imperial eagle,
sable. Such a scutcheon could belong to no family of
ignoble origin." The land over which they held sway
was relatively speaking of vast extent, and possibly
included several other feudal castles, if we may so
interpret the expressions of Hugh's contemporary
biographer, 3 and also those of the Commissioners of
the Dauphin, sent in 1339, to make a valuation of the
possessions and revenues of the commandery (mande-
mtnt) of Avalon. 4

St. Hugh was born in the year ii4o; 5 he was

1 The Castle of Avalon is situated upon territory now belonging to the
commune of Saint-Maximin ; the Castle of Bayard upon that of the
commune of Pontcharra. This Avalon in Isere is to be carefully distin-
guished from Avallon, a considerable township in the department of Yonne.
[Eo.]

Chorier, Histoire Gintralt de Dauphine, ii. 74.

Magna Vita S. H., bk. i. ch. i : Suis castellis et terris. Bk. v. oh. 14 :
No* modicam dominationem.

* Cf. Crozet, Description Topographiquc, &c. t dcs Cantons formant
U Dtpartement <U I' hire. Canton de Goncelin, pp. 9 and 10.

he date here assigned for the birth of St. Hugh is founded upon a

cnpt of the Max** Vita unknown to Mr. Uimock, but formerly

* possession of Dora Lc Couteulx, the chronicler of the Carthusian

Mft It has not been thought worth while to reproduce in our trans-

Ihe Appendix which in the original Life is devoted to this point of

chronology.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

the son of William of Avalon, and of Anna, his
wife. Two other sons, William and Peter, had
already been the previous fruit of this union. The
name which he received in Baptism was then very
common, but it had been quite recently rendered
glorious by St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. This
generous friend of St. Bruno, and protector of his
newly-founded Order of Carthusians, had died on the
ist of April, 1132, venerated by all in his diocese, after
fifty-two years of an episcopate as fruitful in good
works as it had been in trials. Only two years after
his death he had been canonized by Pope Innocent II.,
who thus sanctioned the popular veneration which his
holiness and his miracles had evoked. The Bishop of
Lincoln loved in after years to extol the virtues of his
patron, and especially his angelic purity. We do not
doubt that the protection of St. Hugh of Grenoble
aided our St. Hugh to preserve his baptismal robe
of innocence unsullied.

His parents were worthy of the sacred charge
confided to them, shielding his tender soul from evil
and training it in conformity with the exalted destiny
for which Divine Providence was preparing it. To
the nobility of their birth they united a nobility
of virtue, uncommon at that epoch, and inspired
by a lively and ardent faith. William of Avalon
was a man of deeply religious feelings and chivalrous
character. In his early years he had thought of
giving up the world to enter a monastery, and he
had never ceased to regret the higher life and to
long after it secretly amid the obstacles by which cir-
cumstances had surrounded him. The stirring life of a
camp had not robbed him of his earnest desire for per-
fection, and he kept his flesh in subjection by chains of
iron worn under his clothes and by continual fasts. 1
1 Giraldus Cambrensis, Vita S. Hugonis, dis. i. ch. i.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

Although he was a brave soldier, a man noted for
his . among the champions of his time, yet

his amiable qualities gained the affection of all who
came in contact with him, and the pleasure of his
society was eagerly competed for. Every one admired
the charming modesty which added lustre to his brave
deeds, the gentleness and courtesy which tempered
his courage, and the kindness and affability which
won all hearts, especially the hearts of his comrades
in arms. What was not so generally known was the
secret and ceaseless labour by which he had acquired
this gentle ascendency.. The piety which is " profitable
for all things " had in him wrought one of its master-
pieces, and becoming in turn the heritage of his son,
moulded him to the likeness of his father, yielding
generous interest upon the capital thus transmitted.

And if the lord of Avalon might in this way be looked
upon as a "flower of chivalry" flos militia, 1 his wife
Anna was " the glory of the ladies of her time "-
matronale decus. 2 Between these two noble souls there
reigned a perfect unity of thought and feeling. The
great lady of the castle, brimming over with gentleness
and sympathy, devoted herself to the exercise of
Christian charity in all that was most meritorious and
painful to nature. She was ever ready to hasten to the
assistance and consolation of the poor ; she even tended
the lepers and washed their feet, fearless of infection
either for herself or her children. How St. Hugh
profited by his mother's noble example we shall see
later on. It was her Divine Saviour whom Anna thus
venerated in His suffering members, and whom she
trained her sons to see and to serve unfalteringly in
every action of life. We have no doubt that her chief
maxim of education was that expressed in the words of
the holy Blanche of Castille to her son, St. Louis :
1 *''' r. 45. 3 Ibid. v. 46.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

11 My son, I would rather see you dead before me than
see you commit a mortal sin." 1

We may be quite sure that phrases such as these
often found a place in the instructions of the parents of
St. Hugh, and the proof of it is to be found not only in
the heroism which he displayed, but in the words and
actions of his brothers, who shared the same instruc-
tion, and never failed in after-life to encourage him in
his resistance to unjust oppression. They often said to
him that " they would rather he had never been born,
than that he should falter for one moment in the
defence of the liberty of the Church." 2

We need no more exact information to have a very
good idea of the pure and bracing atmosphere in which
the little Hugh of Avalon passed his childhood, and in
which his heart and intellect awakened to life. His
mother especially took a tender interest in watching for
the first signs of Divine grace in this child of hers,
already consecrated to God by his Baptism ; and so
deeply convinced was she of the teaching of faith with
regard to the dignity of a Christian, that she deserves
to have applied to her the eulogium which St. John
Chrysostom wrote of her namesake, the mother of
Samuel. " Anna," says the holy Doctor, " did not look
upon Samuel simply as her own child, but as a being
consecrated to the Lord ; and she watched over him with
a double affection, the one inspired by nature, the other
by grace. For my own part, I always think of her as
penetrated with reverence for her child. And she was
right in venerating him thus. When we wish to make
an offering to God of cups or vessels of gold, we are
very careful not to use them for any other purpose
while we are keeping them in readiness for the day of

1 St. Hugh had an interview with Blanche of Castille during his last
journey to France. See farther on in this volume, bk. iv. ch. 2.

2 Magna Vita, bk, v. ch. 14.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

tluir consecration: we look upon them as things
already marked with the seal of holiness, and we
should not dare to treat them carelessly, as if they
were ordinary vessels. Such were the feelings of Anna
with regard to her son, even before she had presented
him in the temple of God. She loved him more than
other mothers love their children, and she venerated
him as already belonging to the Lord : he was for her
a living principle of holiness, and in truth her house
was really a temple, for it contained a prophet and a
priest." 1

Had the mother of our Saint, like that other Anna,
made a special consecration of her new-born son to
God ? Had her husband united with her in the pious
offering ? We know not, but we may well believe that
she soon perceived with joy those dispositions of her
little one, which gave such bright promise for the
future. And if his consecration at the font of Baptism
was sufficient to awaken in her the holiest feelings con-
cerning her child, -we doubt not that she dreamt also of
another more special consecration, aspiring to train up
in him a worthy minister for the Church of God.

However that may be, it is quite certain that a most
precious vessel of election was fashioned by her loving
hands, and that she carefully shielded it from every
profanation which could tarnish its lustre. St. Hugh
loved in after-years to recall how careful, even to
severity, had been the precautions taken to guard his
childish innocence. " Indeed," he said, " I never had
anything to do with the joys of this world; I never
learnt any games, and never felt the least wish to do
so." If his parents thus respected the gravity beyond
his years which they perceived in him, and did not
endeavour to overcome the disrelish which he mani-
fested for the usual amusements of childhood, it was

1 Discourse upon Anna, the mother of Samuel, 3.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

undoubtedly because they wished to second the designs
of Providence in calling their son to a high degree of
sanctity. After the time given to prayer (a time which
grew longer and longer as the years passed by), after
the converse with his parents on heavenly things, the
boy's chief recreation and delight was to serve the
poor in every work of charity ; and of this he never
tired.

We must not forget, also, that at this time a great
wave of self-sacrifice and heroism was sweeping over
the world, and that noble souls were everywhere feeling
its influence. The memory of the first Crusade was
still living in the minds of men ; and it still formed the
subject of a thousand interesting stories which rivetted
the attention of children as well as of older persons.
The practical conclusion of all this is easily seen ; it is
summed up in the shout of the Crusaders, re-echoed
still every time that conscience calls for a brave
decision : " It is the will of God." Those Christians
who were not able to take the Cross were earnestly
invited to contribute by their prayers and penances
to the deliverance of the Holy Places. The great
results at that time obtained, the recovery of the Holy
Sepulchre, and the foundation of a Latin kingdom in
Palestine, had not put an end to the struggle against
the crescent of Mahomet, and the alarming news con-
stantly arriving from the East was already agitating
Europe and inspiring St. Bernard with the fiery elo-
quence which was so soon to call the Christian world
to a new Crusade.

The life led by the saintly Abbot of Clairvaux, an4
by other fervent monks of different Orders, who walked
with him in the narrow way of self-renunciation, was
another living voice speaking to the little Hugh in
accents which found an echo in his own heart. It was
easy to show him the enormous walls of rock, behind

8 BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

which were hidden the solitaries of the Grande Chart-
reuse, those already famous imitators of the Fathers of
the Desert, whom St. Bernard had visited with so much
ration. Without yet attempting to accomplish
a like pilgrimage, Hugh could study at his leisure
a priory of Canons Regular, situated quite near his
father's estate at Villard-Benoit. These good men,
living under a rule less severe than that of the Car-
thusians, edified the whole of the surrounding country
by their piety and good works, and were a special
attraction to the lord of Avalon.

But we must also acknowledge that, side by side
with so much good, many and great evils existed ; and
although in the domestic sanctuary where the innocence
of little Hugh found shelter, no bad example was
allowed to meet his eyes, yet he could not help hearing
something of the scandals with which then, as now, the
pious and thoughtful were grieved. However, when
such knowledge came to his ears, his parents took care
to inspire him with the deepest horror for those crimes,
and to point out to him how commonly they met with
severe punishment sooner or later. One fact of this
kind remained always engraven on the memory of
St. Hugh, who loved to relate it, even in the presence
of distinguished personages.

When he was a child he was intimately acquainted
with a merchant, who lived upon one of his father's
manors. This merchant often went on a journey for
business purposes connected with his trade, which
consisted principally in selling the produce of more
distant provinces. Whenever he was absent on one
of these excursions, the lord of Avalon was good
enough to undertake the care of his family ; and when
the vassal returned, he always hastened to thank his
for this benevolent work of charity, and to present
him in return with some rare and valuable gifts. This

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

good merchant was of an amiable and generous dis-
position, and had easily won the affection of his bene-
factor, who was ready at all times to open his heart to
those around him.

On one occasion the news of the merchant's return
home arrived at the castle, but the merchant himself
did not appear as usual. This caused the lord of Avalon
some anxiety, and taking an escort of armed men, he
repaired without delay to his vassal's dwelling. The
merchant's wife met him, and, with much apparent
distress, complained of the sudden departure of her
husband, who, she said, had only remained one night
at home, and had then gone off on a new expedition,
telling her that he did not know when he should be able
to return.

The knight hesitated for a few moments, but as
he saw no reason to doubt the truth of the story, he
prepared to return to the castle with his men-at-arms.
Instantly the merchant's faithful dog crept up to his
feet, and made many strange signs to attract attention,
crying piteously all the while, till at last the good
knight followed the dog, who led the way to a recently
ploughed field. There the faithful animal began to
scratch vigorously in one of the furrows : the knight's
followers assisted him, at the command of their master,
and, to the horror of all, the dead body of the unfor-
tunate merchant at last appeared. He had been
strangled by his own wife, assisted in the terrible deed
by an infamous lover, to whom the wretched woman
had transferred the allegiance due to her husband. The
crime thus discovered was soon proved, and both
criminals met with the punishment they deserved.

Thus the education of the little Hugh went on,
through all these various events of general or local
interest, from which his parents drew morals for
his instruction, until the time came for him to com-

io BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

mence his real studies. According to the custom of
tlu.se days, a child about the age of seven years was
placed in the hands of a tutor or sent to a school, and
from that time began to receive regular lessons. There
is a circumstance which occurred towards the close of
St. Hugh's life, which will help us to understand the
importance that was then attached to this first initia-
tion into the mysteries of human learning.

The chaplain who writes the biography of the holy
Bishop of Lincoln tells us very precisely, in the course
of his narrative, how he had the honour of giving a first
lesson to one of the nephews of the prelate. It was done
with the greatest solemnity. The pupil, who was just
seven years old, and whose name was John, had accom-
panied his uncle to Belley. And it was in the Cathedral
of that town, and upon the altar dedicated to St. John
the Baptist, that the book was spread out, from which
the little child was to learn his alphabet, and with this
solemn ceremony he received his first lesson. 1

In those ages of faith, the cultivation of the mind was
highly esteemed, but the way of showing this esteem
was to lay the foundations of the spiritual and mental
edifice through a solemn invocation of the Father of
Light, whom to know and to love constitutes the highest
wisdom. Certainly the studies of the young Hugh were
well penetrated with this precious leaven, and far from
hindering his progress, the religious character of his
early instruction did but ripen his natural talents and
lead him on with giant strides. An application and
attention, far superior to his years, were at once
remarked in him, and also a keenness of intellect
which rapidly seized upon the meaning of everything,
with a great facility for assimilating the instruction he
received. Already he began to reap the fruits of his
distaste for worldly amusements. His soul, detached

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 14,

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. li

from that which Holy Scripture calls the " fascination
of trifles," 1 soared joyfully towards all that could
elevate and enlighten it. God was preparing him in
this way to understand the terrible but salutary lesson
which death was so soon to give him. He was only
eight years old when his mother died ; and the impres-
sion he then received was so deep, that from that time
his heart was closed for ever to earthly joys and stead-
fastly turned towards the things of Heaven.

His father remained to him, but that father, far
from wishing to dispute with the influence of grace in
his young heart, was inspired to guide the son's steps
towards the religious life, and accomplished this design
with the most admirable delicacy. Helped no doubt
by the intercession of the beloved and noble wife whom
God had taken from him, he resolved to carry out his
former wish of consecrating himself to God, and of
uniting his youngest son with him in this great action.
He soon declared these intentions by a division of all
his possessions. He assigned to each of his elder sons,
William and Peter, the portion belonging to them, and
then announced that Hugh's share was to be given over
to the Canons Regular of Villard-Benoit, and that he
himself would retire to that pious refuge, accompanied
by his youngest and dearest. He had no difficulty
in persuading Hugh to agree to this project. His own
example was only a confirmation of all his previous
instructions, and was a fitting conclusion to the educa-
tion which his son had always received from him. In
after-years, Hugh, speaking of this event, tells us of the
great sacrifice his father made when he entered the
monastery : " My father gave up all that he had in the
world," he says, " to enter the army of Jesus Christ,
and feared not to become suddenly a young soldier in
the heavenly camp, after having been a veteran among
1 Wisdom iv. 12.

HlHTIl AND EARLY YEARS.

the soKlirrs of earth. He might have rested from his
labours with honour and glory, like other knights of his
ami fame; but lie had no wish for rest. He pre-
1 to labour for his Lord and Master here as long
as his strength lasted, and to wait for his rest in the
Kingdom of Hi-avm. Therefore he took the religious
habit he who had long been animated by the religious
spirit and as he had never ceased to regret that he
had not quitted the world as soon as he entered it, he
was resolved that I, at least, should have that happi-
ness : and I needed no persuasion to renounce pleasures
of which I knew nothing, and to follow him as a fellow-
soldier in the spiritual army." 1

Hugh, it is plain enough, was quite capable, in
spite of his tender years, of understanding the ad-
vantages of the religious life he was going to embrace,
even if he was not able perfectly to comprehend all that
he was renouncing. He gave a full consent to the
wishes and advice of his father.

There are some who may be astonished at this
proceeding of the lord of Avalon, and who may be
inclined to accuse him of having violated his son's
liberty of conscience; but if they will only reflect a
little, they will see that such an accusation is quite
groundless. What would they say if they heard that
lather of little Hugh had devoted his son, from his
earliest years, to a military life, and had placed him as
a page at the court of some knightly prince ? Certainly
they would have no reproach for the father in such a
case. Why, therefore, should they not admit that the
father had every right to act in the same way when it
was a question not of earthly armies or the service
of an earthly king but of the monastic life and the
service of the King of kings ? Looked at from this
point of inch is the only right way of looking

1 Magna Vita, bk. i. ch. i.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. 13

at it, and was exactly the light in which it appeared to
William of Avalon and his contemporaries we are
forced to acknowledge that a religious vocation is the
greatest honour a father can desire for his children, and
that although he may not force it upon them against
their inclination, yet he must not attempt to dissuade
them from it, or fail to give them the most sincere and
effectual encouragement, as soon as he perceives that
such a vocation is the will of God for them. .

When the time came for the call of God to be
obeyed, Hugh and his father left the Castle of Avalon
and took their way to the Priory of Villard-Benoit,
where the good Canons were waiting to welcome their
two new Brothers, not indeed without emotion, for it
must have been a touching sight. The father and son
approached their new home together ; the one, his
youth renewed by the heroic sacrifice he was making ;
the other, young in years, but bearing already on his
childish brow the shining halo of advanced and heavenly
wisdom ; both united to each other, less by the ties of
blood than by those of a Divine charity, both of them
glad not to be separated in the farewell they were
bidding to the world, and both ready to fight the good
fight, and walk bravely in the way of perfection.

CHAPTER II.
HUGH AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-BENOIT.

" THERE is a church, situated upon lands in possession
of the city of Grenoble, which is served by a small
community of priests belonging to the Order of Canons
Regular, seven in number. This sanctuary, with its
inhabitants, is supported by the Mother Church and
Cathedral of Grenoble, where is to be found another
community of the same Order. My father had always
a special affection for this Priory, which was situated
on the borders of his estate ; and as a devoted son, he
honoured the Mother Church, of which it was the off-
shoot."

It is thus that Villard-Benoit is described to us by
St. Hugh himself. Without attempting to solve the
historical problems suggested by these few words, and
without examining in detail into the origin of the
Canons Regular and their Rule, we will content our-
selves with stating that this Order owed its existence
to the inspiration of St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz,
and its development to St. Peter Damian, Blessed Ivo
of Chartres, and St. Norbert, through whose means in
course of time it was honoured with the approval of
several successive Popes. Its aim was to effect the
reformation of the clergy, by beginning with the most
distinguished order of clerics after the Bishops, that is
to say, with the Canons. In the beginning of the
twelfth century, a general effort was made to attain this
desirable end, and communities of Canons Regular,

AT THE PRIORY OF VlLLARD-BENOlT. 15

who followed the Rule of St. Augustine, were established
in many dioceses, some of which, notably the Canons of
St. Victor, and still more the Premonstratensians, the
sons of St. Norbert, rapidly developed into flourishing
Religious Orders.

St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, had been well
acquainted with this work of reformation, which re-
sponded to his most ardent desires. He introduced
community life amongst the Canons of his Cathedral
Chapter ; but it was his successor, also called Hugh, 1
and a Religious of the Grande Chartreuse, who com-
pleted the transformation, and it was finally approved
by a Bull of Pope Innocent II., dated from Pisa, on
the 3ist of May, 1136.

The Canons of Villard-Benoit became, like those of
the Cathedral of Grenoble, to whom they were affiliated,
models of religious fervour, all of them animated by the
desire of exalting the dignity of the priesthood by their
pious lives. At the time when William of Avalon and
his young son came amongst them, they were still in
their first fervour, and practised the Rule with that
fidelity which usually distinguishes a new community.
And as a recompense for their efforts after sanctity, and
also as a further stimulus thereto, Divine Providence
allowed them to be the spectators of the dawn of a
Saint's life such a wonderful and enchanting sight,
that we can only form some idea of it by reflecting on
those words of the Gospel, spoken of the Holiest of all :
"And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace
with God and men." 2

Shortly after his arrival at Villard-Benoit, the little
became the chief actor in a touching ceremony.

1 For fuller details with regard to this prelate, who afterwards became
Archbishop of Vienne, see the Notice published at the end of the Life of
St. Hugh of Grenoble, by M. Albert de Boys.

2 St. Luke ii. 52.

1 6 AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-DENOIT.

His father, in consecrating himself to God, made a
solemn offering of his child also to the community at
the same time. \\V draw, from a mediaeval custumary,
a description of this ceremony, which always took place
during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The child
n<> vice, after having his hair cut away in the manner
of a monk's tonsure, carried in his hands an un-
consecrated host, and a chalice containing wine. At
the end of the Gospel, his parents offered him to the
celebrating priest. They covered the hand of their son
with the altar-cloth, and the Abbot or Prior clasped the
little palm in his own. The parents then solemnly
promised that they would never do or say anything
which might induce him to leave the Order, and that
they would never make him any gift which might
endanger his vocation. This promise was then written
down, signed in the presence of witnesses, and after-
wards laid on the altar. The Superior clothed the child
in the religious habit, and, the earthly sacrifice thus
terminated, the Mass was proceeded with. The Canons
of Villard-Benoit were dressed in a white cassock and
surplice ; over this was worn a black cope in winter,
and the almuce or fur cape in summer.

Among the Canons who were present at this oblation
of the little novice, was one more observant and more
deeply moved than any of the others. This was the
venerable Religious who was to be entrusted with the
care and monastic instruction of the young Hugh, and
whose duty it would be to prepare him for the vows
which he was not allowed to pronounce before the age
of fourteen. The pupil himself shall paint for us the
portrait of his master, and give us an idea of the firm
and yet tender affection which was thenceforth the
guide of his early religious life. " There was one of

M Canons," says St. Hugh, " distinguished above
all the rest by his virtue and learning. The gentlemen

AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-BENOIT. 17

of the neighbourhood confided their sons to him, that
they might be directed in secular and religious studies,
and be trained up by his care in habits of virtue. He was
untiring in his efforts to inspire me with a taste for the
study of the Holy Scriptures and of theology, above all
other pursuits, even from the very beginning of my
education. With fatherly caresses and wise counsel
he endeavoured to kindle in my young heart a love for
the most solid and exalted doctrine. To withdraw my
attention from games and other trivialities, he taxed his
ingenuity to keep me occupied and interested in ever-
varied studies. And while other children of my own
age, who were my companions, ran off to their amuse-
ments, he would speak to me gently and kindly in
words such as these : ' My own dear son, do not you
join in the follies of your companions ; let them do as
they will ; it is right for them ; but their pleasures are
not the pleasures which belong to your vocation.' And
then he would add : ' My dear little Hugh, my dear
little Hugh, it is for Jesus Christ and His service that
I am educating you ; childish pastimes are not for
you.'" 1 Thanks to these valuable reminiscences, we
are at least able to catch a passing glimpse of the
monastic school of Villard-Benoit, of the venerable
master, the pupils, the programme of studies, and of
the profoundly Christian spirit which animated the
whole.

The master belonged to that race of monks who
united the practices of austere penance and piety with
assiduous and untiring study, and by so doing rendered
the greatest service to learning. Perfectly content to
devote his whole energies to the children entrusted to
his care, he laboured conscientiously in this noble duty,
without caring for the brilliant success he might have

1 " Hugonete, Hugonete ; ego te Christo nutrio ; jocari non est tuum."
(Magnet. Vita.}
C

i8 AT THE 1'IUORY OF VILLARD-DENOIT.

attained in the world. He was but one of those
numerous professors who, at this time, were the glory
and honour of the monasteries in which they dwelt.
M. de Montalembert tells us that " to the monks almost
exclusively had men cause to be grateful for the blessings
of a thorough education from the ninth to the fourteenth
century, that is to say, during the period of the Church's
greatest power and grandeur." 1 In this also they were
only following the traditions of their ancestors, for the
same might have been said of the solitaries of the
desert, as St. John Chrysostom eloquently pleads, in
his defence of the monastic life, already, even in those
days, so misunderstood and calumniated.-

The pupils who attended the monastery schools
were divided into two classes. There were, first, the
novices, or such children as were consecrated to God,
and destined for the religious life ; and secondly, the lay
scholars, who were afterwards to return to the world.
The most distinguished noblemen sent their sons to
these institutions, and even children of the blood royal
were often educated in this manner those amongst
them, for instance, who were in after life Kings of
France, and are known to history as Robert the Pious,
and Louis the Fat. If the mingling of the two
classes of students was very advantageous to the lay
scholars, it was certainly not without its dangers for
the young Religious; and at the Council of Aix-la-
Chapelle, held in 817, a decision was adopted against
this custom. But the attraction felt for these monastery
schools was too powerful for such a prohibition to be
of much use, and the monks contented themselves with
taking the precautions which, as we have already seen,
were customary at Villard-Benoit. Our little Canon
associated with his lay companions to a certain extent,

i Monks oftht West, vol. vi. bk. xviii. c. iii.
ohn Chrysostom, Advcnus oppugnatores Vita Monastics, i. 3,

AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-BENOIT. ig

and as far as was necessary, but his master was espe-
cially careful to separate him from them during the
time of recreation. The noisy amusements, which were
quite fitting for future knights and courtiers, were not
at all suitable for young novices. Hugh, as we know,
had never any particular attraction for games, and
consequently it was no difficulty to him to obey the
wise, though austere, commands of his good master,
who, besides, spared no pains in procuring him such
recreation as was in accordance with the life of a
cloister. Manual labour, as light and as varied as
possible, friendly conversation, and pleasant walks,
afforded sufficient interest and relaxation, and they
took the place in his case of other more worldly amuse-
ments.

But for young Hugh study itself was the most
delightful of pastimes. The course of studies pursued
in the monastery schools was much fuller and more
varied than might at first sight be supposed, and to
intelligent souls it offered food that was both solid and
attractive. To convince ourselves of this, we need only
peruse the Ratio Siudiorum of this period (Emditionis
didascalicce libri septem), a work composed by a celebrated
Canon Regular, Hugh of Saint-Victor, who died in
1142. We do not know if at Villard-Benoit was taught
the whole Encyclopaedia which is summed up in this
remarkable work ; but we have no doubt that subjects
were selected from it which might best form that kind
of brain which an illustrious thinker has called " well-
built rather than well-packed." Secular studies were
not neglected ; on the contrary, they held their place
beside the sacred and ecclesiastical ones. Neither their
utility nor their danger was misunderstood, and a wise
course was steered between the intense eagerness with
which secular learning was pursued during the period
of the Renaissance, and that extreme fear of all that

20 AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-BENOIT.

not distinctly religious, which induced some earnest
souls to banish heathen authors entirely from Christian
schools.

The practical rule, which the Church has always
approved, is that which St. Peter Damian explains
when speaking of the attention paid by St. Gregory VII.
to the ancient classics. He says : "This is indeed to
spoil the Egyptians of their choicest treasures, and to
build with them a tabernacle consecrated to God, when
we study the heathen poets and philosophers with the
express object of strengthening and cultivating our
minds, in order that we may be able to meditate more
deeply on the Divine mysteries." 1

Hugh, therefore, was able to read the masterpieces
of heathen antiquity, all proper precautions being taken
by his master's watchful care ; but at the same time
a preference was given to the sublime doctrines of Holy
Scripture and the Fathers of the Church. This indeed
was the distinguishing characteristic of his education,
that it was so profoundly Christian. The spirit of all
the instruction he received is summed up in those
beautiful words of his venerable master : Ego te Christo
nutrio" It is for Jesus Christ I am educating thee."
To direct every thought and affection, every aspiration
of the soul, towards the Divine Master ; to raise the
light of human intellect to the Father of Light ; to
change each step made in the further enlightenment of
the understanding into a corresponding advance in the
discipline of the will ; to bring out the character of the
ideal Christian, who should be but another Christ ; to
lift the soul above the worldly knowledge that puffs up,
to the charity that edifies such were the noble ends
proposed to the young student, who was never allowed
to forget that he was also a novice. And if his master
was incessantly reminding him of this, it was not that

1 Opusc. xxxii. c. ix.

AT THE PRIORY OF VILLARD-BENOIT. 21

he wished him to neglect other studies, but because he
saw in his dear Hugh the monk rather than the student,
that is to say, the ideal of a perfect Christian whom he
was to guide to the heights of sanctity. Whenever he
had to reprove or correct, even to correct severely,
he always consoled his little pupil afterwards with the
same thought. If the child wept, he also wept and
comforted him with the tenderness of a father. " My
son," he said, " do not weep, and do not make an old
man weep." Then he would congratulate the child on
his happy dispositions, and repeat his favourite saying
under every variety of form : " It is towards God that
I am guiding your footsteps ; be quite certain of it, you
are going to God." 1

The young Canon was faithful in imbibing this
spirit, and walked with giant strides in the way of
perfection. So much progress did he make, in fact,
that at the age of fifteen 2 he was allowed to take his
religious vows, and to live from that time with the
community instead of with the other scholars. It was
very shortly after this that an opportunity occurred in
which he was able to manifest the filial tenderness and
charity with which his heart was already overflowing.

His father, who had all this time been the happy
witness of his ever-increasing virtue, was now to reap
a particular benefit from it. The father was extremely
old, and bowed down by infirmities ; all the other
Canons regarded him with a respectful sympathy. The
Prior, wishing to render him all the assistance and
comfort he so well deserved, had the kindly idea of
giving him his own son to be his nurse. So he said con-
siderately to Hugh : " You cannot give more pleasure to

"Ad Deum enim desuper te mitto ; et ad Deum ibis sine dubio."
(Giraldus Cambrensis, Vita S. Hugonis.)

2 Since the Council of Trent, the vows of Religious cannot be lawfully
taken before the age of sixteen.

22 AT Till- rRIOKY OF VILLARD-BEN01T.

me and to your other brothers in Religion, than by taking
the greatest care of your dear father, whom we all revere
so much. No one else amongst us is more devoted to duty,
no one is more humble or more skilful than yourself;
therefore it is to you we confide this important charge."
Hugh received this command with joy, and gladly
obeyed the order of his spiritual Father, which assigned
him a post beside his earthly father, whom he venerated
and loved with a double love on account of the bonds
of nature and grace which united them. Henceforth
his place was by his father's bedside, until the end
came. The poor old man had every care and attention
that he could desire. His son scarcely ever left him,
supporting his feeble footsteps, carrying him when he
could no longer walk, preparing his food, and even
feeding him, as age and infirmity increased. And all
these services were rendered with an affection and
tenderness which multiplied their value, for in a
thousand ways the old man was made to feel that he
was the object of that true love, which is the best of all
remedies and the greatest of all consolations.

Hugh's reward was to receive a father's heartfelt
blessing in return for each service which he rendered,
and it was in this school of charity that he learnt much
of that exceeding tenderness and pity for all sinful and
sorrowing souls which afterwards distinguished him.
When his father died in his arms, his heart, broken
with natural grief, opened wide to embrace every form
of human suffering. And enriched beyond measure by
all the benedictions of which he had been the object,
he prepared himself to shed them around him upon
others, and to be a worthy representative to them of
the infinite goodness of God.

CHAPTER III.
PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY.

AT the age of nineteen, Hugh received a striking proof
of the esteem in which he was held by his brothers in
Religion. The Canons of Villard-Benoit unanimously
requested the Bishop of Grenoble, who was called
Geoffrey or Godfrey, 1 to allow him to be ordained
deacon. At that time the dignity of a deacon was so
much appreciated that many venerable persons wished
for no higher position ; following therein the example
of the first deacons of the early Christian Church.
Peter of Blois, a writer of the twelfth century, cites
a memorable instance of this. He had learnt, he
tells us, from the lips of Pope Celestine III. himself,
that before he ascended the Papal throne, the Pontiff
had remained a deacon for sixty-five years without ever
being raised to the priesthood. 2

Hugh was perfectly conscious of the honour thus
paid to his virtue, but his humility took alarm, and the
proposal filled him with many misgivings. As we shall
see later on, he had always ardently desired the priest-
hood, and of course, the diaconate, as a preparation for
the higher dignity ; but he thought himself too young
and too unworthy to approach so near to the altar of
God. However, it was of no use for him to bring

1 This prelate was a Carthusian, and a friend of St. Anthelmus. In the
time of Prior Basil, he confirmed the decrees of the first General Chapter of
the Order.

2 Peter of Blois, Ep. 123. Celestine III. was elected Pope at the age
of eighty-five, and governed the Church from 1191 to 1198.

2 4 PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY.

forward such arguments, for no one would pay any
attention to them; and, after his ordination, it was a
never-failing source of joy to all his brothers to witness
the angelic devotion with which he fulfilled his sacred
duties.

The next step was to give him some apostolic work
as a preacher, and here also it was soon discovered that
he possessed exceptional qualifications for the task.
St. Augustine, who was always regarded by the Canons
Regular as their patriarch and lawgiver, furnished the
young deacon with a perfect model of sacred eloquence
and solid teaching. The holy Doctor says that ** before
undertaking to instruct others, to give them encourage-
ment, or to touch their hearts, the Christian orator ought
to have recourse to God in prayer, and to place more
trust in the help received directly from God, than in
any flights of human eloquence ; so that, interceding
at the feet of his Lord, for himself and his hearers, he
should never exercise his ministry as a preacher before
having been first a humble suppliant. Then, when the
hour comes for him to speak, his soul, being bathed in
the waters of Divine wisdom, will be ready to pour
them out abundantly on the souls of his hearers, and
to fertilize them with the blessings he has himself
received. ... If the flowery language of the highest
eloquence then rises to his lips, let him not fear to use
it, but let it not be with premeditation ; rather let the
words flow simply from the sublime thoughts which are
inspiring him and carrying him away. ... In like
manner, a warrior who is fighting with a sword covered
with gold and precious stones, makes use of his weapon
for self-defence and attack, without thinking at all of
its value. ... A true orator does not rely upon the
beauty and appropriateness of his words ; his words
derive their value from him." 1

1 De Doctrina Christiana, bk. iv.

PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY. 25

Hugh, with his noble natural character, had exactly
these ideas of his duty as a preacher. His mind was
quick to receive impressions, his heart was easily moved
by all holy emotions, and he possessed that ardent love
for souls, which is so necessary to any one who desires
to touch them and draw them to God. His powerful
words pierced the hearts of his hearers, like a sword
which nothing could resist. Whether he was endeavour-
ing to rouse the slothful from their indifference, or
boldly denouncing the guilt of scandalous sinners,
whether he was encouraging the just to higher efforts
of virtue, or breaking the bread of the Word in any of
its various forms, not one of his hearers was ever
tempted to " despise his youth ; " on the contrary, he
appeared to all as "the example of the faithful," 1 or
as another Stephen, " full of grace and fortitude." 2

The great success of the young preacher was able,
moreover, to stand the test of time, so often fatal to
an orator who is always addressing the same hearers.
Days and months passed by, without exhausting the
admiration of his brothers in Religion or of the people
who flocked to hear him. And amongst those who
returned the most heartfelt thanks to God, was the
good and venerable Canon who had first guided the
steps of Hugh in the paths of holiness and learning.
He was now Prior, but he preserved his first affection
for this well-beloved pupil. What a consolation it was
for him to see all his efforts so well rewarded, and to
feel that nothing more remained to be done, but to
encourage this son of his soul, who was daily mounting
higher and higher towards the summit of perfection.

The time came when he was able to show the con-
fidence he reposed in his dear Hugh, by entrusting
to his care the " cell " of Saint-Maxime (now Saint -
Maximin). The Canons Regular were allowed to

i i Timothy iv. 12. 2 Acts vi. 8.

:r, PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY.

MM parish priests, provided they remained faithful
to the spirit of their apostolic vocation : the Council
of Poitiers, held in noo, under the Legate of Pope
Pascal II., had expressly granted them this privilege,
without extending it to monks of other Orders. But
for the exercise of this duty, according to the recom-
mendation of Blessed Ivo of Chartres, it was necessary
to select those whose conduct was most perfect and
whose theology was most sound, because " no one is fit
to become the guide and guardian of others, until he
has first learned to rule his own life." 1

It was obedience alone which decided the young
Canon to accept the heavy burden thus laid upon him.
And when he was installed in his little priory, not far
from his father's old Castle of Avalon, he found himself
destitute of even the most necessary resources. Far
from being discouraged by these privations, which the
vicinity of the noble dwelling of his ancestors must
have made somewhat humiliating, he esteemed himself
happy to be able to practise his vow of poverty more
perfectly, and place all his trust in Divine Providence.
The small revenues of the little priory were barely
sufficient for the support of one canon and the few
servants who ministered to his wants; but Hugh, in
spite of this, wished to have with him another brother
in Religion, who, being a priest, would be able to offer
the Holy Sacrifice and administer the sacraments to his
parishioners, while he himself could discharge the other
duties of his pastoral care. For this post he begged
the companionship of one of the older canons, a man
whose spirit he knew and venerated, preferring the
solid advantages of association with a grave Religious,
to the natural pleasure he might have found in the
v of a younger friend.

With regard to the land and vineyards of the priory,

1 Letter 93.

PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY. 27

he placed them in charge of honest tenant-farmers, who
soon put the land into a better state and made it profit-
able. For himself, the young parish priest took no
thought for the morrow, but simply lived from day to
day, doing the will of God and leaving the future in
God's hands. Prayer and study filled up his time, when
he was not engaged in his pastoral duties. Soon the
appearance of the whole priory was changed. The
land increased in value, the rents were higher, the
tenants prospered in worldly things, and profiting
by the example of their pastor, began to lead sober,
just, and pious lives. The poor were assisted in their
necessities, and the rich were pleased by their respect
and obedience. The fame of this model parish spread
far and wide, and many visitors came to Saint-Maximin
to be the edified witnesses of what was being done
there.

Hugh took advantage of the presence of these
crowds to sow the seed of the Gospel more abundantly.
He preached continually in his little church, and every
one of his hearers learnt something it was good for him
to know, going away from Saint-Maximin strengthened
in faith and resolved to lead a better life. Not
content with speaking in public, the young pastor
watched carefully over his sheep, notwithstanding their
good reputation, and neglected no means of seeking
after those who had gone astray, of raising up the fallen,
of healing the wounded, and of leading all in the
pastures of justice. 1 In short, he showed that he was
not only a preacher, but a shepherd of souls, as well
versed in the art of guiding and protecting them as in
that of imparting instruction.

There is one circumstance belonging to this period
which will show us how right he was in his vigilance,
and with what energy he could act, when the occasion

* Ezechiel xxxiv. 16,

28 PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY.

arose. He himself related the facts many years after
when he was Bishop of Lincoln, to some trusted
fri.-nds who were discussing with him those words of
our Divine Lord to St. Peter : "If thy brother shall
offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee
and him alone." 1

After each one of those present had given his opinion
as to how fraternal correction could best be exercised
in conformity with this evangelical precept, Hugh
spoke last, and confirmed his decision by the following
example :

" In my youth," he said, " when I was but a simple
deacon, I had charge of a small parish, assisted in what
was needful by a priest too old for other work. It
happened that one of my parishioners was accused to
me, and, what was worse, was truthfully accused, of
the heinous sin of adultery. I was deeply grieved, and
immediately made inquiries on the subject. Having
ascertained beyond a doubt that the accusation was
true, I sent for the guilty man, and saw him alone,
speaking to him as the exigency of the case required.
But far from confessing his crime, he denied it obsti-
nately and indignantly, and when I persisted, he grew
furious with anger, and vented curses and threats upon
me. He then departed, leaving me in the deepest
sorrow to see him so obstinately unrepentant. I then
recollected the precept of which we have just been
speaking, and, sending for the sinner again, in the
presence of two, and then of three witnesses who knew
of the affair, I reproved him a second and a third time,
still making use of persuasion, and promising forgive-
ness, if he would acknowledge his sin and do penance
for it. He still refused to hear me ; he would promise
nothing ; and would not even take steps to put an end
to a cause of open scandal. At last, on a solemn feast-

1 St Matt, xviii. 15, seq.

PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY. 29

day, I publicly denounced him in the church, and
spoke openly of the infamy of his conduct. Finally, I
threatened that if he did not at once give up his sin, and
present himself as a penitent, I would deliver him over
to Satan, to chastise him in his body, in interitum carnis. 1
At this threat the guilty man, terrified and covered with
confusion, rushed up to the altar, and there confessed
and bewailed his fault with groans and tears. After
he had thus done public penance, he was admitted to
pardon and reconciliation."

It was in this way that St. Hugh fought with evil,
and overcame it. But he was not thinking then of the still
more glorious conflicts and victories reserved for him
in the future. His whole soul was longing after a life
of solitude, in which, disengaged from all earthly cares,
he might be able to seek after the " one thing necessary."
The comparative solitude of his little Priory was not
sufficient for him : he felt the need of separating himself
more completely from the world and all worldly things,
that he might make a new and more perfect sacrifice of
himself to God.

Towards the end of the century preceding the one
in which St. Hugh lived, the same aspirations had
drawn from the world another Regular Canon belonging
to the diocese of Reims, who was then on the point of
being promoted to the highest ecclesiastical dignities,
and who as a reward for his act of self-sacrifice became
the patriarch of the Carthusian Order. St. Bruno has
himself described to us, in his own words, what solitude
was to him, and the long line of faithful sons who have
walked in his footsteps have confirmed the truth of his

1 This was the form of excommunication used by St. Paul (i Cor. v. 5).
Certain powers were allowed by custom to parish priests in the twelfth
century, which were afterwards withdrawn. Yet even then they could not
pronounce any public excommunication without special permission from
their Bishop, which doubtless St. Hugh had obtained.

3 o rKKACIIING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY.

words. In his letter to his special friend, Ralph le
Provost and afterwards Archbishop of Reims,

.id the following words, which deserve thoughtful
meditation : " As to the blessing and sweetness of
solitude and silence, let those who have chosen them
tell their charm, for only those who have experienced

joys can speak of them worthily. It is there that
generous men can enter into themselves, can dwell with
God alone in the very centre of their souls, can cultivate
the germs of every virtue, and enjoy a foretaste of
Paradise. It is there that we can acquire that purity
of heart and serenity of expression which wounds the
Heart of the Divine Spouse, and unites us to Him in
the pure love which contemplates God alone. It is
there that perfect rest accompanies labour, and action
hurts not the peace of the soul. It is there that in
return for their brave conflicts, God gives to His stout
warriors the reward they have desired a peace which
the world knows not, and the joy of the Holy Ghost.
It is there they find the beautiful Rachel, so much more
beloved by her husband than Lia, although Lia was
the wife who had borne him many children. I am
speaking here of the contemplative life ; and although
its sons are less numerous than those of the active life,
yet, like Joseph and Benjamin, they are infinitely dearer
to their Father. It is there that the ' best part ' is to
be found, which Mary chose, and which shall never be
taken from her. . . . O my brother, fear not then to fly
from the turmoil and misery of the world ; leave the
storms that rage without, to shelter yourself in this safe
haven. You know the words of the Divine Wisdom :
* Unless a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be
My disciple.' Is it not a grand thing, is it not sweet
and profitable, to enter into the school of Divine
Wisdom, that there, under the teaching of the Holy

PREACHING AND PAROCHIAL MINISTRY. 31

Ghost, we may learn that sacred philosophy which
alone can give true happiness ? "

The sons of St. Bruno continued to be the living
echo of the voice of their holy Father, by imitating
his example, and making the desert blossom with their
virtues. The thoughts of young Hugh had often been
turned in that direction, and it was his delight to listen
to the descriptions of those who had visited the Grande
Chartreuse. His own Superior at Villard-Benoit had
availed himself of his proximity to that abode of pre-
dilection to renew his fervour there from time to time.
And there is no doubt that the impressions received by
him in that spot, and transmitted to his young disciple,
had a great deal to do with Hugh's ardent desire of
beholding these venerable monks, towards whom he
felt so strong an attraction.

At length the time approached when the next
momentous step in the life of our Saint was to be
taken. Hugh was determined to see for himself what
this solitude was like of which he had heard so much.
He asked and obtained permission to go there, and it
was in the company of his own Prior that he one day
joyfully set out to pay his first visit to the Grande
Chartreuse.

CHAPTER IV.
THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

IN the contemporary biography of St. Hugh, when we
come to the commencement of his life in the desert, we
read this expressive heading : " How he visited the
Chartreuse, and fell in love with it at first sight." l A
noble and holy love, which only those enlightened souls
will understand, to whom God has revealed the
mysterious attraction of that famous solitude and its
inhabitants. Let us here pause for a moment, and try
to enter, with the Saint, into the secret of its charm.

The first sight of the desert of Chartreuse-
separated as it is from the rest of the world, by a chain
of wild and rocky mountains, strewn with the debris
brought down by the avalanches, covered with ice and
snow for two-thirds of the year, and full of precipices
and dark forests produces two distinct impressions,
which recur under varying forms in the descriptions of
those who have visited the spot, " It is frightful !" say
some. " It is sublime ! " say others. And the two
opinions are less opposed to one another, than we might
at first suppose. Has not the sublime always, from its
very nature, a side that is terrible to our littleness and
weakness? The question is, whether the soul is
sufficiently strong to rise above its terrors, to forget
them, to forget self also, and so to comprehend the
infinite beauty which underlies the grandeur of the

1 " Ubi cum priore suo Cartusiam inviserit, ct visam dilexerit.'
{Magma Vita, bk. i. ch. i.)

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 33

scene. When once this is accomplished, the desert
begins to wear another aspect altogether, and blossoms
out into charms, far greater than those of any peaceful
and cultivated plain. Even the winter, long and severe
as it is, is not without its enchanting surprises to
those who are brave enough to face its hardships. No
one can ever forget the splendour of the desert then,
completely covered with snow, the fir-trees shining with
a dazzling whiteness in the sun, the rocks ornamented
with a thousand crystal icicles, and all under a
cloudless sky of clearest blue.

The same impression that is felt in presence of this
grand solitude, is renewed when we come in contact
with the monks that inhabit it. To the outward appear-
ance, their lives are no less strange than their dwelling-
place : their garments are coarse and poor, their silence
is unbroken, their abstinence is perpetual, their fasts
and mortifications are many, their lonely cells surround
a cemetery ; the whole scene is repellent to eyes long
accustomed to the beautiful things of this world. But
when Divine grace takes hold of the heart of the
beholder, everything is changed, and instead of exclaim-
ing, " What a sad life ! " or, " What folly ! " he
recognizes the sublime folly of the Cross, and cries out,
with the three Apostles on Mount Tabor: " Lord, it is
good for us to be here ! "

Looking at the matter thus, from a nobler and
more exalted stand-point, the desert of the Grande
Chartreuse may be compared, as Pere le Masson has
said, to a magnificent amphitheatre, of which the
mountains form the walls and tiers of seats ; the
meadows and forests are the curtains and the scenery ;
while the arena is a broken and irregular surface,
mounting from the rapid torrent which waters its lower
steps, up to the monastery, where the soldiers of Christ
are grouped together, and higher still, to that rock
D

34 THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

hidden in the depths of the forest, where the statue
of St. Bruno stands, and where he seems still to be
directing the peaceful campaign of his followers. We
may certainly apply to the Grande Chartreuse those
eloquent words of Holy Scripture : " The mountains
are round about it : so the Lord is round about His
people from henceforth, now, and for ever." 1 God
found these beloved children of St. Bruno " in a desert
land, in a place of horror and of waste wilderness. He
has led them and taught them Himself ever since ; He
has guarded them, as the apple of His eye. Like the
mother-eagle, enticing her little ones to fly, and hovering
over them, God has spread out His wings, He has taken
those chosen ones with Him, He has carried them on
His shoulders." 2 It was on those eagle wings that the
Canon Hugh of Avalon was carried higher and higher,
until he understood the mystery of the sight opened
before him, and in his heart, thenceforth and for ever,
embraced a life of solitude.

Lost in admiration for that wonderful desert scene,
"so near to Heaven, and so far from the turmoil of
earth," he then visited the monastery, which stood in
those days exactly where it stands now. For a
terrible avalanche having almost entirely destroyed the
original hermitage of St. Bruno and his first companions,
in 1132, and seven monks having perished in the catas-
trophe, Dom Guigo, who was then Prior, fixed the site
of the new monastery lower down, where it would be
protected from a similar disaster. The buildings, which
were finished by his successor, St. Anthelmus, bore that
character of simplicity which is suitable for the home
of solitaries. Only that was provided which was needful
for health and for the proper performance of the worship
of God. At the time of which we speak, the cloister
and cells were of wood, but they were sufficiently
1 Psalm cxxiv. 2. 2 See Dem. xxxii. n.

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 35

spacious and well-arranged to make a life of solitude
very bearable. The church in the midst was built of
stone, and was wanting neither in artistic design or
beauty of ornament. The altar was formed of a single
enormous block, which could only have been brought
up the mountain and fixed in position by prodigious
efforts.

The monastery possessed also a well-furnished
library, which especially attracted the attention of
St. Hugh. " He saw in this abundance of books a
powerful help to contemplation, and a means of inter-
course with God." 1 Gilbert, Abbot of Nogent, had
previously made the same remark, and in 1104, ne wrote
of the first Carthusians: "Although they are poor, they
have a magnificent library, so that they seem to labour
all the more ardently to acquire the meat which perisheth
not, having very little of that which is perishable. The
Count de Nevers, paying them a visit out of devotion,
was so touched by their poverty, that on his return
home he sent them some silver plate of great price.
This they immediately returned to him, saying they
had no use for it, and the Count was so much edified
by this refusal that he gave them a quantity of choice
leather and parchment, which he knew to be necessary
for the writing and binding of books. And this time
they did not refuse his gift."

Hugh was not content with examining the exterior
of the monastery; he applied himself to the study of
the Carthusian spirit, and found it all that he could
desire. " The inhabitants pleased him even more than
the habitation ; he saw in them the mortification of the
flesh, serenity of heart, liberty of spirit, cheerful count-
enances, and blameless conversation. Their Rule
recommends solitude, but not singularity ; if their cells
are separate, their hearts are united. Every one lives

Vita.

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

alone, but no one can possess anything of his own, or
act differently from the rest. Every one is isolated
from his brothers in Religion, yet is united with them
in all he does. Each man is alone, and so escapes the
tedium of society; but there is sufficient community
life for him, so that he is not deprived of the advantage
and consolation of fraternal charity. Above all things,
each individual is protected by the safe fortress of
obedience to one spiritual head, without which so many
solitaries, left entirely to themselves, have been exposed
to the greatest dangers. This was what so fascinated
Hugh, this was what charmed and enraptured his
heart, so that he was irresistibly drawn towards the
Carthusian life." 1

Hugh confided his wishes to the successor of St.
Bruno, who was then Dom Basil, the eighth Prior of
the Grande Chartreuse, elected in 1151. This venerable
Religious, who had played a great part in the world, and
who was looked upon as a Saint, followed the traditions
of his predecessor, St. Anthelmus, and of the Priors who
had gone before ; so that the Order was increased and
strengthened under his administration. The General
Chapter of the Order began under his rule to be held
once a year, and it is this practice which has contributed
so much to preserve the Order in its first fervour, for
more than eight hundred years. To all the other
merits of Dom Basil, this special one was added,
whenever he was spoken of afterwards by Carthusian
historians: "It was he," they say, "who received into
our Order St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln."

When the young Canon revealed the desire of his
soul, and begged with tears to be admitted to the
Novitiate, Dom Basil wished to test the reality of his
vocation. The petitioner was of noble birth, his
appearance was fragile, and he was very young ; might

1 .\fjgn, i I'ita, p. 24.

"THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 37

there not be some doubt of his perseverance ? More-
over, the Constitutions of Dom Guigo, which were part
of the Rule of the Order, gave a formal command to
Superiors always to present as rigorous a picture as
possible of cloistered life to all those who desired to
embrace it. 1 Dom Basil executed this command to the
very letter : " My good boy," he said, in his most frigid
tones, " how can you possibly entertain such an idea ?
Do you not know that the monks who dwell on these
cold and hard rocks, must be as cold and hard as the
rocks themselves ? They have no mercy upon their
own flesh and they show no mercy to others. This is
a most frightful country, and our Rule is terribly severe.
Our hair-shirt alone would tear off your skin, and leave
your bones' bare, and your constitution is far too delicate
to support the other austerities of our Rule. Our life
would kill you." 2

Hugh had been hoping for a different reply to this,
but he was not at all terrified at the difficulties thus
presented to him. Like St. Lawrence, our deacon could
say to this announcement of sufferings that nature
recoils from, but which Divine grace can make light
and easy : " This is a feast I have always looked forward

1 Cap. xxii. : " Novitio itaque misericordiam postulanti (i.e., who asks for
admission) dura proponuntur et aspera, totaque vilitas et asperitas vitae
quam subire desiderat, prout fieri potest, ante oculos ponitur. Ad quae si
imperterritus manserit et immotus," &c. (Migne, P.L. vol. 153, p. 682.)
-[ED.]

2 It is interesting to note the light in which Canon Perry puts this
incident before his readers : ' ' Hugh was soon, however, to discover that
all these advantages (of the Carthusian enclosure) did not avail to keep out
spiritual pride. One of the Carthusian monks to whom he ventured to
hint his desire to cast in his lot with them, sternly reproved his presumption,
and contemptuously told him that the life was too high, the struggle too
severe, for such as he was." (Life of St. Hugh of Avalon, p. 178.) Canon
Perry, who can see nothing but spiritual pride in the discouraging speech of
the Prior, would probably have been the very first to accuse him of taking
unfair advantage of Hugh's boyish enthusiasm if the answer had been more
favourable. [Eo.]

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

to." Obstacles only inflamed his desire the more. He
spoke to several of the other monks, and confided to
tln-m the anguish of his heart. These good souls, who
were not obliged, as their Prior was, to test vocations,
took a pleasure in encouraging Hugh, in exhorting him
to perseverance, and in promising him all the help that
lay in their power, for the furtherance of his design.
Hugh was rejoiced at their welcome kindness, and
began to understand what was the real meaning of
the words of Dom Basil. But another and still more
formidable obstacle was to stand in his way, and this
came not from the Carthusians but from the good Prior
of Villard-Benoit.

It was useless for Hugh to attempt to conceal the
longing in his heart from the friend and Superior who
knew him so well ; it was useless for him to beg the
Carthusians to keep silence on the subject, the old
Canon understood it all ; his fatherly heart revealed to
him the crushing blow which threatened him, and he
could not resign himself to it. He hurriedly announced
to Hugh that they must leave the Grande Chartreuse
at once, and as hurriedly departed. On their way back
to Villard-Benoit, he gave free course to the grief which
filled his heart, saying, with many tears: "O my
beloved child, I see clearly that this journey to the
Chartreuse has been a terrible misfortune for me and
my church. I see that the solitude and silence of that
place have enthralled you and carried you out of your-
self. It is of little use for me to carry your body home
again, your soul is elsewhere. And soon I fear the body
will follow the soul, and the hope and consolation of my
old age will be gone from me, alas, when I need it most.

s it possible that you can thus forsake your father?

Wave pity on me, my son, have pity on my white hairs,
stay with me for the short time I have yet to live.
You cannot have the heart to leave me. If your love

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 39

for our Church and for your brothers in Religion has no
influence over you, at least grant the request of your old
father, and remain with him, to close his dying eyes."

This language, dictated by an affection that was
too human, was unworthy of the faithful friend who
had formerly said to his young pupil : *' It is for Jesus
Christ that I am educating you ; " and the grief which
was overwhelming him made him lose sight of those
superior motives which triumph over weak nature.
Seeing that Hugh was deeply touched by his sorrow,
and was weeping with him, he went farther still, and
made a request, or rather gave a command, which even
his grief could not excuse. " My beloved son is so
good," he said, " that he has already granted my
prayer. Therefore, I ask of him to swear solemnly to
me, in the name of God, that he will never forsake me
as long as I live, and will give up his intention of
joining the Carthusians. If he will not do this, I
cannot rest."

At these words, Hugh was sorely troubled. He
saw before him the painful alternative of either dis-
obeying the voice of God, which was calling him
interiorly to a more perfect life, or of disobeying the
command of his earthly superior, which had been to
him hitherto as the voice of God. Was his vocation
strong enough to oppose such a proposition as this ?
Undoubtedly it would have been, if he had had time
for calm reflection, but, carried away by his emotions,
he stifled the cry of his soul, and gave the required
promise.

We should not have hesitated to say that this was a
grievous mistake, almost a culpable weakness, if our
Saint, who was by no means slow to avow his own
shortcomings, had ever seemed to hold himself guilty in
after years. But the historian of his life assures us
that in this matter, " he acted in good faith and purity

7/77: GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

of intention, placing his confidence in God, and trusting
that God would bring about his deliverance."

Nevertheless, he was exceedingly grieved and
agitated, and not all the grateful and reassuring words
with which his Superior sought to console him, could
restore peace to his soul. He thought incessantly of
the graces he had lost by delaying to follow his new
vocation, which became stronger day by day. But there
was his fatal oath, keeping him back from the solitude
he desired. What could he do ? To whom could he
confide his anguish unless to God, who could see the
purity of his intention ?

God did not indeed abandon His faithful servant,
and after allowing him to experience the full bitterness
of this trial, at length dispersed his doubts, and poured
full light upon his darkness. His conscience, thus
enlightened, took courage, and assured him that such
an oath was not binding, " wrung from him," as it was,
" by surprise," and in a moment of emotion, " to the
detriment of his perfection and eternal salvation."

No sooner did he see where his duty lay, than he

hastened to obey the call. He put all the affairs of

his priory in order, and then, telling no one of his

intention, set out once more for the Grande Chartreuse.

He never afterwards regretted this determined step,

but replied, many years after, to a confidential friend,

who asked him if it was right thus to break a solemn

promise. " Never have I felt the slightest scruple about

it ; rather, has it been to me a source of unfailing joy,

because from it, I have derived the greatest blessings."

Nevertheless, he could not bid farewell to Villard-

olt, to St. Maximin, and to the Castle of Avalon,

-out a lively sense of the sacrifice he was making

of his happy and honourable past, for a future of self-

mciation and penance. When, later on, he became

Prior of the Carthusian monastery at Witham, and

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 41

then Bishop of Lincoln, he revisited the spot that was
so dear to him, and never forgot the religious family in
which his early youth had been passed amid so much
affection and edification.

NOTE TO BOOK I. CHAPTER IV.

The account given above of St. Hugh's vocation to
the Carthusian Order makes no mention of an incident
which is detailed at considerable length in the Vita
Metrica, and is there described as having contributed
very materially to direct the thoughts of our Saint
towards a life of stricter seclusion. According to the
verse narrative, the young Canon, while discharging
his pastoral duties at Saint Maximin, felt that his
pursuit of perfection was interfered with by the visits
of women to his "cell," who sought him out no doubt
in most cases with a perfectly genuine desire to obtain
from him spiritual counsel and direction. In one
instance, however, if the metrical writer is to be trusted,
a woman, lost to all sense of shame, deliberately set
herself to work to compromise him. St. Hugh, we
are told, was both shocked and terrified at this assault
upon his virtue. In the course of the interview the
woman had laid her hand upon his arm. Thereupon
he is said to have taken a knife and cut away the flesh
where the woman's touch had rested. 1 From that day
he knew no peace until he had placed himself in safety
within the cloister of the Grande Chartreuse. I must
confess that this story seems to me to have little pro-
bability in its favour. Such a self-inflicted mutilation
must have left a terrible scar to the day of his death,

1 Sic tactum mulieris Hugo quasi vulnus abhorrens
Vipereutn facinus sic indignatur ut ipsam
Particulam carnis ferro prsecidat acuto ;
Jit cum carne sua carnalia scandala delet.

(Vita Metrica, 11. 254 257.)

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

and a scar like this would have been just the sort of
tiling which the devoted monk Adam, who seems to
have been Hugh's chaplain, body-servant, and confidant
all in one, could not possibly have failed to question
him about and to record in his narrative. It seems
most likely that the whole passage is nothing more than
a poetical amplification of a casual observation of
Giraldus Cambrensis to the effect that St. Hugh was
troubled at the freedom with which women were per-
mitted to come and go in such outlying chaplaincies,
where the Canons lived like the ordinary secular clergy,
and that he resolved, according to the ascetical ideas of
the early centuries, to seek safety in flight. It seemed
worth while to make reference to the incident here, if
only to protest against the utterly unwarranted remark
of a modern Anglican biographer of St. Hugh. " We
are compelled," says Canon Perry, " to gather from the
account that the state of morals of the Canons and
Canonesses was so bad that Hugh could not live among
them with safety to his soul." It would be hard to
imagine a more preposterous inference. One of the
last acts of St. Hugh's life was to visit the scenes of his
early youth in company with Adam, his future bio-
grapher, when St. Hugh presented to the Canons a
Bible of the value of ten marks, a most munificent
present in those days; and not one syllable does his
biographer hint either here or elsewhere of the slightest
irregularity amongst them. What he does tell us shows
that Hugh preserved to the end a deep veneration for
the men who had guided him in his early years, and in
whose society his father had chosen to end his days.
He tells us too, that when the Bishop visited Saint
Maximin, white-headed old men and women bent double
with years crowded round him and were never wearied
with publishing the praises of his apostolic work among
them. No doubt it was these very vetula incurva et

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 43

mulieres estate provecta whose devotion in their younger
days St. Hugh had found dangerous to his soul. But it
is infamous upon such evidence to formulate a sweeping
charge of immorality against his fellow-Canons, and to
drag in, moreover, under the same censure a suppo-
sititious community of Canonesses, for whose very
existence there is not a shadow of proof. Both Giraldus
Cambrensis and the author of the metrical Life speak
not of Canonesses, but of the frequentia mulierum ; and
the latter, in his highly poetical description of the mulier
qua eum tentavit and her dress, makes it abundantly clear
that she was certainly not a Religious. Moreover, it
is incredible that in a little "cell" like Saint Maximin,
which could barely support Hugh and the one aged
priest his companion, a community of Canonesses
should have been set up close beside them.

St. Hugh has always been looked upon as an almost
perfect representative of the Carthusian spirit, and that
spirit was the product of the ascetical ideas of the age,
and was probably latent in his heart even before he
joined the Order. Now the attitude of the Carthusian
Rule towards women may well be illustrated from a
section of the Consuetudines of Dom Guigo, their fifth
Superior General, drawn up some thirty years only
before the date of which we are speaking. It is headed,
De Mulieribus, and despatches the whole question with
brief incisiveness in the following two clauses :

" Under no circumstances whatever do we allow
women to set foot within our precincts, knowing as we
do that neither wise man, nor prophet, nor judge, nor
the entertainer of God, nor the sons of God, nor the
first created of mankind fashioned by God's own hands,
could escape the wiles and deceits of women.

" Solomon, David, Samson, Lot, those who took to
themselves the wives they had chosen, and Adam our
common father, remind us that man cannot conceal

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

fire in his bosom without burning his clothes, cannot
walk upon red-hot coals without scorching his feet,
cannot touch pitch without being defiled."

Is it wonderful that a young deacon who shared
such views should think that the lonely life of a parish
priest, necessarily brought by his parochial duties into
daily contact with women, good, bad, and indifferent,
was an obstacle to his pursuit of perfection and even a
danger to his soul ?

The same Anglican writer just referred to, com-
menting upon St. Hugh's disregard of his oath in
becoming a Carthusian, remarks that " no plain man
can hesitate to pronounce this a sinful act," and pro-
ceeds to apologize for St. Hugh by inveighing against
the low morality of the middle ages, and the delusive
"glories of the spiritual life." That point has been excel-
lently dealt with by Father Bridgett in an article on
Canon Perry's book in the Dublin Review for April, 1880,
since reprinted in Blunders and Forgeries. I will only
add that the difficulty involved in such moral problems
is one that might have counselled moderation to the
most anti-casuistical of writers. Could any sane man
maintain that Herod, having wrongfully sworn to do
whatever he was asked, was bound in conscience to
put St. John the Baptist to death ? Again, if a young
Jew were induced by his father to take an oath never
to become a Christian, would Canon Perry consider
him bound by it, even after he had become convinced
of the truth of Christianity ? Or what would he say of
a Dissenter in similar circumstances, who had sworn
never to become an Anglican, or of a man who had
sworn never to touch alcohol, and is solemnly assured
by his doctors that a moderate use of it is necessary
to save his life ? St. Hugh believed on calmer reflection
that God willed him to be a Carthusian, and that the
salvation of his soul depended on his listening to the
call.- [ED.]

CHAPTER V.

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE.
1163 1173.

HUGH, on his return to the Grande Chartreuse, was
welcomed with joy and kindness. His vocation had
indeed sustained a severe trial, and could no longer be
a matter of doubt to any one. The apparent coldness
of Dom Basil was changed to paternal affection, and
he at once admitted the young Canon to the novitiate,
and led the way to his cell with the usual ceremonies.

We will only recall one detail of this touching
custom. Then, as now, the postulant, when making
his public petition to be admitted into the Carthusian
Order, prostrated himself before the whole community,
assembled in Chapter. " What do you ask ? " said the
Prior. " Mercy," replied the petitioner. Hugh felt
deeply the sentiments of humility and gratitude which
this word expresses. He considered himself most
happy to be thus admitted into the society of Religious
for whom he had such exceeding veneration. He
regarded this commencement of a new life as a special
blessing from God, and making no account of the years
he had spent in the practice of virtue, looked upon
himself as a simple beginner, taking his first steps in
the path of perfection. Thus fulfilling the words of
Holy Scripture : " When a man hath done, then he
shall begin." 1

[According to Dom LeCouteulx, 2 the General Chapter

. xvjji. 6. 8 Annales, ad an f 1163, vol. ii, p. 250.

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE.

of 1163 passed a decree which would seem to have
reference to the admission of St. Hugh as a postulant,
and to enable us thus to fix the date of his departure
from Villard-Benoit. The provision spoken of enacts,
that " when a canon regular is received into our Order,
he is allowed to retain his habit until the day of his
profession, while other monks are clothed in our cowl
as soon as they are admitted." It may be assumed from
this that our Saint still retained, during his noviceship,
the canon's white habit and surplice, but this, of course,
did not prevent him from wearing the hair-shirt under-
neath.]

An old tradition still points out the cell which St.
Hugh inhabited during his sojourn at the Grande
Chartreuse. It is at the end of the Gothic cloister, and is
surmounted by the letter F. Over the entrance we read
these words, upon which the life of the Saint was a living
commentary : Beati qui csuriunt et sitinnt justitiam, qiwniam
ipsi saturabuntur Blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after justice; for they shall have their fill." 1
With the exception that stone walls have replaced
the wooden ones of the twelfth century, the cell presents
much the same appearance now as it would have done
in the time of St. Hugh.

Passing through the door which opens on the
cloister, we find ourselves in a short covered passage
used to pace up and down in in wet weather. This
communicates with the solitary's little garden, and
further on with his wood-shed, and the room which
serves him for carpentry or other manual work. At the
end of the passage, a staircase takes us to the upper
floor, and here we enter first a room used as a kitchen
in the time of the Saint, and then the cell proper, in
which he lived and prayed. On one side of it, in a sort
of oratory, stand a stall and a pric-dieu, on the other is
i St. Matt v. 6.

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 47

a bed which shuts up like a cupboard, containing only
a straw palliasse and woollen coverings. A small table,
fitting into the recess of the window, served for his
solitary meals, and a crucifix and a few holy pictures
are the sole ornaments of the humble dwelling. Ad-
joining is a little work-room, a few wooden shelves
holding the books which were required by the monk for
his studies.

[Perhaps it may be well to remind the reader at this
point that the Carthusian monk, though living with his
brethren under the rule of a common Superior, leads
essentially the life of a hermit, or solitary. It is, if we
may so describe it, monastic discipline " on the sepa-
rate system." Three times in the twenty-four hours
for the long midnight Office, in the morning for Mass,
and in the evening at Vespers he repairs to the
church to join the other monks in offering to God a
common worship. On each Sunday of the year, and on
occasional festivals, he takes his meals in a common
refectory, and is further allowed to converse with his
brethren between None and Vespers. Once also in
the week, the merciful Rule prescribes for the health
of mind and body that he shall take his spatiamentum, or
walk abroad, which is made a matter of obligation, and
lasts between two and three hours. But apart from
these occasions, the Carthusian spends the hours of
both day and night in his cell alone. It is there he
eats his frugal meal, or meals, which are now passed in
to him ready prepared, through a little wooden shutter,
but which, in St. Hugh's time, the monk cooked for
himself; it is there he labours, studies, and takes exer-
cise ; it is there that he prays, reciting in solitude the
day hours, the Office of our Blessed Lady, and often
the Office for the Dead as well. People have sometimes
taken scandal at the roomy " cells " of the Grande
Chartreuse, blaming the extravagance of these long

4 8 TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE.

rows of little houses, each with its covered passage and
garden ; but as one of the early Generals of the Order
has well said, " if those who censure our customs would
only learn by a little personal experience what a soli-
tary life is like, they would understand the reason of
many things which are now strange to them." Neither
is the solitude the only mortification of the Carthusian
monk, nor the greatest. A perpetual rough hair-shirt,
worn night and day next the skin, an unbroken absti-
nence from meat and animal fat, a point in which no
dispensation is tolerated even in sickness, the long six
months' Lent, and the weekly fast on bread-and-water
all these austerities, and others besides, represent the
price which the solitary pays for such little semblance
of comfort as is involved in his five-roomed house, his
garden, and his provision of books and utensils.]

But to return to that well-beloved hermitage in the
Grande Chartreuse where St. Hugh spent the best, if
also the least eventful, years of his life. From the
little garden belonging to the cell, we see, above the
wall of the enclosure, and framed as it were in a
picture, the wild beauty of the desert mountain.
Forests of pine-trees, in their ever-green freshness,
relieved in summer-time by the brighter foliage of the
beech, guide the eye to the colossal rocks which serve
as buttresses to the peak of the Grand-Som, and it
seems as if that mighty monument hung almost per-
pendicularly over the little hermitage, at the height of
more than three thousand feet. There, in his moments
of relaxation, which are as necessary to the solitary as
to other mortals, he could gaze on that sublime spec-
tacle, and draw from it the purest enjoyment and the
most exalted impressions.

It is easier thus to give a sketch of the exterior
situation than to give a satisfactory description of the
life that was led there. Nevertheless, we must find

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 49

some answer to the question : What did St. Hugh do
in his solitude, during the ten years he dwelt in that
lonely cell ? We will try to reply in three words, and
will say simply : he prayed, he worked, he denied
himself in all things.

Prayer is the chief occupation of a Carthusian.
He does not seek solitude that he may give way to
vague dreams, and lead a life of mental sloth, but his
great aim is to be united -to his God, 'and he makes
use of vocal and mental prayer as a means to this
union.

Everything in his life is so arranged as best to
dispose his soul to recollection, to meditation, and, if
grace calls him to mount higher, to that state of more
perfect prayer which mystical theology calls contem-
plation, and which is indeed a foretaste of the Beatific
Vision.

We must always remember that the contemplative
life does not necessarily imply this state of perfect
contemplation. God gives His choicest graces to
whom He will, and there are many devout and humble
souls who are content to wait for them till they reach
Heaven. But there is no doubt that the life of a
Carthusian opens the door for these graces, and all
may desire them. The recital in common of the Divine
Office brings a beneficial variety into the solitary's life.
Without speaking of the welcome break in the mono-
tony introduced by the changing ritual of the greater
and lesser festivals, the ecclesiastical year calls up
before him all the mysteries of our Lord's Life one by
one in a sort of continuous drama. Grave and simple
ceremonies serve to enforce attention to the sacred words
which fall from his lips, not only in choir, in the
presence of his religious brethren, but also in his cell,
where he says a portion of the Office alone, but with
the same external observances as if he were in church.
E

77-.V YEARS OF SQLITUDE.

The Mother of pure love and holy hope comes to
encourage his solitude with her sweet smiles. For the
Office of the Blessed Virgin, which is daily recited, in
addition to that said in choir, far from being an addi-
tional burden, is a source of the greatest consolation.
And the Office of the Dead, which is often added to the
two preceding, in chanty to the suffering souls in
Purgatory, stimulates his fervour by keeping ever before
his eyes that purity and freedom from stain without
which it is impossible to enter Heaven.

As soon as he took up his abode in his cell, Hugh
learnt how to recite these different Offices, according
to the liturgical rules of the Order, from a venerable
monk who filled the post of Novice-Master ; the Prior
also making frequent visits, and giving many instruc-
tions to his new son. So well did he profit by these
lessons, that he was able to say afterwards, when
rebuking any of his own clergy for negligence or
unpunctuality : " From the time I was first received at
the Grande Chartreuse, I cannot recollect a single
instance in which I kept others waiting, or caused an
interruption in a religious function." We may judge
from this of his spirit of regularity and his attention to
the external worship of God.

No less careful was he to practise all the morti-
fications commanded or permitted by the Order. If a
life of solitude appears dull and insipid to persons in
the world who try to follow it in some measure, it is
because there is wanting to them this salt which savours
all the rest, the stimulating condiment of mortification
and penance. Hugh asked for no dispensations, and
courageously followed every prescribed austerity. Night-
watchings, frequent fasts, continual abstinence from flesh
meats, severe disciplines, the perpetual hair-shirt worn
even during sleep, these, with silence and solitude,
formed the mortifications imposed by rule. During Lent,

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 51

he fasted every week for three days on bread and water
only, doing the same during the whole of Holy Week.
And this practice he observed, notwithstanding his
many infirmities, up to the time of his being made
Bishop. This strict fast, which the Rule calls abstinence,
is still commanded for one day in each week, unless a
dispensation be granted, which must be renewed each
time. In his book of Constitutions, Dom Guigo tells us
that it was formerly practised every Monday, Wednes-
day, and Friday ; but as we read that St. Hugh
performed his penances according to the "ancient Rule
and example," we may conclude that this more severe
form of abstinence was very soon limited to special
seasons of penance. But this comparative relaxation
was compensated for by other changes ; an order being
given for the Divine Office to be sung instead of said,
which made the night watches much longer and more
trying. This rule was introduced when Dom Basil was
Prior.

St. Hugh was also faithful to his vow of obedience,
for without this most important mortification of the will,
bodily austerities are of no value. The authorNof the
aforesaid Constitutions places this virtue of obedience
above all others. After announcing that no Carthusian
is allowed to perform any extraordinary penance with-
out the special permission of his Prior, he adds :
" Moreover, if the Prior commands one of his Religious
to take more food, or to sleep for a longer time, in fact,
whatever command may be given us by our Superior,
we are not allowed to disobey, lest we should disobey
God also, who commands us by the mouth of our
Superior. All our practices of mortification and
devotion would be fruitless and of no value, without
this one virtue of obedience, which alone can make
them acceptable to God."

Guided by this truly religious spirit, Hugh chastised

52 TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE.

his body, but at the same time submitted his will to the
will of those in authority over him seeking their advice
on every occasion, and so avoiding the two extremes of
too great severity or too great self-indulgence. He
obtained leave for some extraordinary penances : he
was allowed to do what his strength permitted, but was
not allowed to go beyond his strength, and thus
observed the limits of that perfect discretion which
St. Anthony recommends, and which has always been a
distinguishing mark of the Carthusian Order.

It was obedience also which regulated his working
hours, and dictated the employment of them. A part
of this time was given to reading and study, another
part to the copying of manuscripts, -which, in those
days, when printing was unknown, formed one of the
most important duties of a cloistered life. By it the
monastic libraries were enriched with all the treasures
of sacred and profane literature, and those precious
relics of antiquity were handed down to posterity. In
giving a list of the few articles which were to furnish
the cell of each monk, Dom Guigo is especially careful
to enumerate everything that was necessary for carrying
out this important work, which was brought to such
marvellous perfection in the monasteries of the middle
ages. 1 He then gives a list of the books which were
to be lent to each solitary, and commands that the
greatest care should be taken of them.

His life of prayer, mortification, and hard work,

1 Dom Guigo enjoins that each monk should be provided with " a desk,
pens, chalk, two pumice stones, two horns, a scalpel, two knives, or razors,
for shaving smooth the parchment, a bodkin, an awl, lead, a rule and
rul.-r to rule with, tablets, and ink." Each one may also have from the
library two books, of which he is to take the greatest care ; for he adds,
" books furnish the perpetual food of our souls, and while Carthusians
cannot spread the word of God with their tongues, they can do so by
writing with thrir hands." (Constituthncs Guigonis. i. cap. 28 ; Miene P L
vot cliii. p. 6o4.)-[ED.]

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 53

prepared St. Hugh in some degree for the extraordinary
struggles and temptations he was now to pass through.
These conflicts were terrible. The devil made use of
all his evil ingenuity to trouble the peace of this soul,
so dear to God, and to disgust him with the life he had
chosen. A thousand temptations affrighted his solitude,
and night and day, like another St. Paul, he felt the
sting of the flesh, and had to endure the " buffets "
of Satan. It was in vain he resisted with all his
might, it was in vain he redoubled his prayers and
penances, calling upon God with groans and tears ;
the temptation continued to torment him, until sud-
denly, and in one moment, the God of all consolation
came to his assistance, and the struggle was over.
Then he was astonished, as he afterwards told a
trusted friend, to see how quickly peace returned to
his heart, and could not understand how it was that in
an instant he could pass from that state of agony and
darkness into the full light of a Divine joy and calm.
" O my God," he exclaimed, at the remembrance of
this time of trial, " while I was deploring the horrible
thoughts that assailed me, and humbling myself beneath
Thy feet, while I felt myself to be but dust and ashes,
suddenly Thou didst take pity on Thy poor servant,
and didst pour upon him the light of Thy consolation.
Then didst Thou give me to taste of Thy hidden
manna in such a way that those wondrous delights
made all the sweetness of the world seem bitter to me.
But those happy moments of consolation were rare and
fleeting. New temptations came, new struggles, new
cries for help. But never, in spite of all my unworthi-
ness, did Thy mercy forsake me ; in the midst of
darkness I heard Thy voice still speaking in the depths
of my soul ; and it was Thy hand that supported and
guided me through all." 1

1 Magnet Vita, bk. i. ch. 9.

54 TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE.

God has His own designs, full of mercy in reality,
when He thus allows His chosen ones to be tempted
and tried. He humbles them, that He may afterwards
exalt them. He shows them their own nothingness,
before inebriating them with His love and revealing to
them His secrets. It is God's way with all His Saints.
And Hugh, who was called to the highest contempla-
tion, rose in proportion as his sorrows and humiliations
had cast him down. All these trials did but confirm
his determination to lead a solitary life, and at the end
of his year of novitiate he begged to be allowed to
take his vows, according to the custom of the Order
and the ceremonial which is still in use.

On the appointed day, during the Offertory of the
Conventual Mass, the novice advances to the foot' of
the altar, to unite his sacrifice with that of the adorable
Victim. He sings three times, in the words of the
Psalmist : Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquinm tuttm, et
vivam : et non confundas me ab expectation mea. 1 The choir
then repeat the same words, also three times, after
which the novice kneels before each of his brothers in
Religion, saying humbly, " Pray for me, my Father."
He then returns to the entrance of the sanctuary, where
the Prior puts over his shoulders the monk's cowl,
which has just been blessed, " as a symbol of innocence
and humility." Then comes the solemn moment of
actual profession, the formula for which ran and still
runs in these terms: '< I, Brother Hugh of Avalon,
promise perseverance, obedience, and true conversion,
here before Almighty God and His Saints, and before
the holy relics of this hermitage, which has been con-
structed in His honour, in that of the Blessed Mary,
ever Virgin, and of St. John the Baptist, in the presence
of Dom Basil, Prior of this Monastery." After chanting

Psalm cxviii. v. 116 : Uphold me according to Thy word and I
hall live : and let me not be confounded in ray expectation."

TEN YEARS OF SOLITUDE. 55

the words of this written formula, the newly professed
lays it upon the altar, which he kisses at the same time,
and then prostrates himself to receive the blessing of
the celebrant. In this blessing the Prior implores Jesus
Christ, the sole Way that leads to the Eternal Father,
" to guide this Religious who has renounced all the
joys of the world, in the path of monastic perfection."

Hugh rose from his knees with the one thought that
he had at last obtained the grace so ardently desired.
He was a Carthusian, and it was for ever. No after
dignity could make him forget this first and greatest
one. Faithful to his vow of perseverance, he wished
for nothing but to pass the rest of his life in his beloved
cell, and he only quitted it with extreme reluctance.
Faithful to his vow of obedience, he never took any
step, even to the acceptance of the episcopate, without
a command from his Superiors, keeping always the
Rule in its integrity. And faithful to his vow of a
true conversion, he never halted in his triumphant
march towards perfection, and embalmed the desert
with the odour of his sanctity.

CHAPTER VI.

HUGH IS ORDAINED PRIEST; HIS ACQUAINTANCE
\VITH ST. PETER OF TARENTAISE.

AFTER his profession, Hugh was able to see more of his
brothers in Religion, as the Rule allows conversation
on Sundays, on great feast-days, and also during the
stay of any honoured guest at the monastery. This is
a legitimate consolation, and a preservative against the
dangers of absolute seclusion. It is besides a means of
mutual edification, for the treasures of charity and
fervour, accumulated by each individual Religious in
his lonely cell, are then made common property, and
without a shadow of affectation, these holy souls
unconsciously reveal their progress in perfection to
each other, even in the most simple words. In the
biography of St. Hugh we read : " In this assembly of
just men, were some of exceeding sanctity and gravity,
which drew towards them the veneration of many great
princes and prelates. The Prior of the house, whose
name was Basil, was never known by any other title
than the Saint, so admirable was the perfection of his
virtues. His monks followed closely in his footsteps,
so that it was not easy to distinguish which of them
>vas the most fervent and perfect. ... All persevered
zealously in observing the strictest poverty ; in for-
getting the things of time for those of eternity ; in
practising humility and compunction of heart ; in
taking the lowest place, and exalting their brothers." l

.;HJ nta, bk. ii. ch. 10.

HUGH IS ORDAINED PRIEST. 57

We may be sure that Hugh was not behindhand in
giving edification in his turn. To each one, Superiors,
equals, and inferiors, he always showed the greatest
charity and respect. And, as at Villard-Benoit, his
Prior now gave him an opportunity of practising these
virtues, by placing in his charge an aged and infirm
monk, who was too weak and ill to be able to leave his
cell. Hugh recited the Divine Office with him, and
rendered him every service that charity and kindness
could suggest, just as he had formerly tended his aged
father. In the person of this sick and feeble old man,
who gave an admirable example of patience, Hugh
recognized and adored his Divine Lord, and his devo-
tion to his charge knew no bounds.

Whether the duty had been specially laid upon him,
or whether it was his own zeal that prompted it, we
know not, but this holy old man began to prepare his
infirmarian for receiving the grace of the priesthood,
and thus to repay by spiritual benefits the debt of
gratitude he owed to one "who took care of him as a
mother takes care of her little child." We believe that
our Saint was about thirty years of age when he was
ordained priest. His biographer tells us, in fact, that
he had already passed several years at the Grande
Chartreuse, and we know also that such was the age
formerly required by the canon law.

When the day of ordination was approaching, the
man of God, whom Hugh was waiting upon, wished to
sound his dispositions. So he said : " My son, the time
is coming when you may be ordained priest, if you
wish. You have only to give your consent, and this
dignity will be conferred upon you." At this announce-
ment Hugh's heart bounded. It had long been his
greatest joy and consolation to serve at the altar, and
to feed on the Bread of Heaven. How ardently,
therefore, did he desire the honour of himself celebrating

HUGH IS ORDAINED PRIEST.

the Holy Sacrifice, and of uniting himself oftener, and
still more closely, with the Lamb of God. So he made
no secret of his wish to his old friend, but replied
simply and candidly, " There is nothing in this world
I desire so much."

" What do you say ? " exclaimed the old monk.
" How dare you think of such a thing ? Who could
ever have believed you would be capable of such
presumption ? I was never more astonished. Have
you not often heard it said, He who does not refuse the
priesthood, is not worthy to receive it ? And you, far
from refusing it, you are not afraid, as you have just
told me yourself, to long for it with eagerness ! "

Hugh was terrified, and thunderstruck, as it were,
by this reproach ; he threw himself at the feet of the old
monk, and with tears asked pardon for his presumption.
The venerable invalid was deeply moved by this great
humility ; he also wept, and telling Hugh to rise, drew
him to a seat at his side. Then, inspired by the spirit
of prophecy, he uttered these memorable words: "Fear
not, my son ; and I will no longer call you my son, but
my lord. For I know well whose spirit it was which
dictated your answer to me just now. And I tell you
the truth, that soon you will be made a priest, and on
the day that God wills, you will be made a bishop."

Thus reassured, Hugh began to prepare for his
ordination. As to the dignity of bishop, which his old
friend had predicted to him, far from desiring it as he
desired the priesthood, he dreaded it exceedingly, and
to such a degree, that when it was really offered to him,
he did all he could to prevent the fulfilment of the
prophecy. As the old monk had said, " He showed
himself worthy, by refusing it."

We can easily understand that the priesthood did
not inspire him with the same fears. Without ceasing
to admire the deep humility which induces many holy

HUGH 13 ORDAINED PRIEST. 59

Religious to refuse this dignity, we contend that the
sacerdotal consecration is a marvellous completion of
the religious consecration. A priest, who is not a
Religious, will be less disposed to understand and
practise the solemn admonition of the Pontifical :
" Know what you are doing ; imitate Him whom you
touch ; and since it is the Death of the Lord which you
represent on the altar, be careful to mortify your own
body." On the other hand, a Religious who is not a
priest, has not the same help for making his self-immola-
tion yet more perfect, and also deprives it of much of the
power and fruitfulness it might have for the salvation
of souls. Just as a true priest ought to be a real
victim, and finds the most abundant graces for the
attainment of this end in the monastic life, so the
victim who has consecrated himself entirely to the reli-
gious life, gains much by becoming also a priest,
because he thus resembles more closely his crucified
Lord, who was Priest and Victim at the same time,
and is so, daily, in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Two characteristic ceremonies of the Carthusian
liturgy symbolize this double transformation. Before
beginning the Holy Mass, the Carthusian monk pros-
trates himself on his side, at the foot of the altar.
Seeing him thus, with his head partly bowed down, as
though it were resting on the Heart of Jesus, and half
raised, as if to listen for a heavenly voice, we recognize
the victim sanctified by the contemplative life, and
willingly offering himself in union with the Divine
Lamb. But when the same Religious rises, and puts
on his priestly vestments, all is changed. He commences
the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and during the greater part
of the Canon, his arms are stretched out, as though to
embrace the whole world, just as the arms of our
Divine High Priest were stretched out upon the Cross.
Then he is no longer a simple monk, he is a priest

60 ST. PETER OF TARENTAISE.

bearing up the universe, as he bears his Creator in his
hands ; in his Sacrifice of the God-Man, he renews his
ifice of himself, he feels the grandeur of his own
office as a victim, and conceives a new desire to suffer
for the souls of men.

Such a true victim did St. Hugh become when he
had received his sacerdotal consecration and was able
to offer the adorable Sacrifice. In so far as obedience
allowed him, he redoubled his mortifications and
penances. The thought of the great act he was now
able to accomplish at the altar, absorbed his whole
being. After a fervent preparation, his lively faith
could not be concealed from the eyes of those who
assisted at his Mass. It seemed as if he really saw
his Divine Lord in the sacred Host, and indeed, he
was perhaps already favoured, from time to time, with a
vision, of which we shall speak farther on. This ardent
devotion of our Saint to the mystery of the altar was
life-long, and he could have said from one moment to
another : " I am preparing to offer the Holy Sacrifice; "
or " I am still making my thanksgiving."

To deepen these impressions at this critical period
of his life, Hugh was now to make the acquaintance
of a holy Archbishop, whose portrait we must rapidly
sketch in a few words. St. Peter of Tarentaise (1102
1174) was tne founder and first Abbot of the Cistercian
Monastery of Tanne", and became afterwards Archbishop
of Tarentaise. So great was his humility, that before
he could be induced to accept this dignity, the positive
commands of several Abbots of his Order, and of
St. Bernard himself, had to be laid upon him to obtain
his consent. It was not his own diocese alone that
benefited by his zeal and charity ; he was known and
admired throughout the whole Church as a worker of
miracles and an ardent defender of the Papacy.

The people crowded around him, and their faith

ST. PETER OF TARENTAISE. 61

was rewarded by repeated wonders. At Saint-Claude,
where he was detained a long time by the enthusiasm
of pilgrims from all parts, the crowd was so great, that
he had to retire into the church-tower, where the two
stair-cases served to regulate the stream of sick and
other visitors. Terrified at this ever increasing fame
and at the veneration which accompanied it, he fled
from his diocese, and concealed himself in a monastery
in Germany. But he was soon discovered there by his
devoted flock and brought back in triumph. Shortly
afterwards, in 1159, the schism of Octavien took place.
The partizans of Frederick Barbarossa set up Cardinal
Octavien, under the title of Victor IV., in opposition to
the true Pope, Alexander III., who had just been
enthroned. In spite of the Imperial manifesto, which
threatened all Bishops who were faithful to their duty
with banishment, St. Peter of Tarentaise did not
hesitate to defend the cause of the lawful Pontiff. He
travelled through Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine, and
Italy, to champion the liberty of the Church, and put
an end to the schism which was harassing her. He
had even the courage to face the Emperor himself, and
to say to him : " You must cease persecuting the
Church and her Supreme Head ; you must cease
persecuting the priests and Religious, the people and
the cities, who favour the cause of the lawful Pope.
He is a king appointed to rule over all kings, and you
will have to give an account of your conduct to him."

The Emperor received these remonstrances of the
holy man with respect, beholding the miracles which
confirmed his Divine commission. And to those who
were astonished at his condescension, he replied: "I
can oppose mortal men, it is true, because they deserve
it ; but I cannot declare openly against God." 1

1 The Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, May 8th. The Life of St Peter of
Tarentaise, by M, l'Abb6 Chevray, may also be consulted.

r? ST. PETER OF TARENTAISE.

St. Peter had a special affection for the Carthusians,
an affection hereditary in his family, and the schism
had served to draw the two Orders still closer together,
both being supporters of Alexander III. Faithful to
the spirit of their holy Father, who had quitted his
beloved solitude to assist Blessed Urban II., the
Carthusians had always maintained their devotion
for the Head of the Church. Landuin, the first
successor of St. Bruno, died from the wounds inflicted
upon him by the hired assassins of an Antipope. And
later on, the adhesion of the Carthusians to the cause
of Innocent II. was cited by St. Bernard as a decisive
argument in favour of that Pontiff. 1 St. Anthelmus kept
up this noble tradition, employing all his efforts to have
Alexander III. recognized by the houses of his Order;
and although he had ceased to fill the post of General
of the Carthusians, he succeeded in his endeavours,
with the assistance of another good monk called Dom
Geoffrey, a former Prior of Mont-Dieu. 2

St. Peter of Tarentaise exercised the same influence
in the Cistercian Order as St. Anthelmus had exerted
among the Carthusians, and it was to their united efforts
that Alexander III. owed his final triumph. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the holy Archbishop, espe-
cially towards the end of his life, made repeated visits
to the Grande Chartreuse, where he frequently passed
several months in solitude. It was there he found a
congenial repose from the cares and fatigues of his
ministry, and delighted in the society of those who
could understand and share all his sentiments. He
treated Dom Basil as his friend and consulted him
about his affairs, whenever it was necessary. We
have from his hand a charter, drafted at the Grande
Chartreuse in 1170, in which he arranges certain

1 Works of St. Bernard, vol. vii. p. 591.
* Dom Le Couteulx, Annales Ord. Cartus, vol. ii. p. 189.

ST. PETER OF TARENTAISE. 63

divisions of land which he had made for the canons
of his church, " having come to this decision," he says,
" by the advice of the Carthusians." This Act was
read in the cloister of the Grande Chartreuse, in
presence of the Prior and his monks : and was
approved by Amadeus, procurator of the Order, and
by William his nephew, both of them formerly canons
of Tarentaise. 1

At this time, if not earlier, Hugh was selected for
the charitable office he had twice before so well ful-
filled, and that was, to take care of the holy Archbishop,
whose great age and infirmity rendered such attention
necessary, and whose strength was ruined by continual
austerities. It was the association of two Saints, for
their mutual edification and encouragement.

Hugh used to wash the feet of the Archbishop, and
would have kissed them reverently, if the holy old man
had not refused him permission to do this. He neglected
nothing that was for the comfort of his charge, and
when all bodily wants were attended to, his next
endeavour was to give pleasure to the mind. "Whether
it was a question of tracing a quotation or of finding a
book in the monastery library, he .was always ready,
and always successful in his search. The Old and
New Testaments, the Lives of the Saints, the writings
of the Fathers of the Church, nothing was unknown
to him. When he listened to the words of the Arch-
bishop, it was with charming docility ; when he spoke
in his turn, it was with brightness, and always to the
point. . . . Every day he asked for the prelate's bene-
diction and absolution, who gave both gladly, and
who took pleasure in communicating to him the spiritual
riches he had acquired, omitting nothing that could

1 Besson, Me 'moires pour I' Histoire Eccltsiastiquc des Dioceses dt
Geneve, Tarentaise, et Maurienne. New Edition, pp. 353 355.

57. PETER OF TARENTAISE.

sanctify the ynunij priest, and through him, a vast
number of souls." l

Their pious conversations were continued in the
open air, when the aged prelate walked, leaning on the
arm of his faithful companion ; and long afterwards
the rustic seat was shown on which they rested on their
way back to the monastery a simple plank of wood
between two tall pine-trees standing near each other.

St. Hugh used to relate, in after years, how, when
at night time, he assisted the Archbishop into his bed,
and arranged the bed coverings, he always heard him
utter this last prayer before composing himself to rest :
" Grant, Lord, we beseech Thee, as a reward for the
thanks we offer Thee for all Thy benefits, a more
abundant outpouring of Thy favours." 2

St. Peter of Tarentaise died in 1174, while he was
trying to bring about a reconciliation between the
Kings of England and France, by command of the
Pope. When he was canonized, in 1191, by Celes-
tine III., St. Hugh was already following his example,
exhorting and directing princes, and struggling man-
fully for the liberty of the Church.

1 Magna Vita. bk. i. ch. 13.

* " Praesta quassumus Domine ut de perceptis muneribus gratias exhi-
bentes beneficia potiora sumamus." This is a Post-Communion prayer
which occurs in slightly varying forms in the Roman Missal, and is now
used for the Common of a Confessor Pontifex. [Eo.]

CHAPTER VII.

HE IS MADE PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE
CHARTREUSE.

1173 1180.

HUGH had been ten years a Carthusian, when the
important office of Procurator was conferred upon him.
His predecessor in these functions, a holy Religious
called Guigo, was elected Prior in 1173, when Dom
Basil resigned his post as Superior, doubtless that he
might prepare for death in solitude and recollection.
Guigo II., as we will call him, to distinguish him from
the author of the Constitutions, chose St. Hugh to
succeed him as Procurator. It was a choice that
pleased the whole monastery, and the boundless con-
fidence which the new Prior reposed in his Procurator,
shows us how worthy St. Hugh was, and how well he
fulfilled his duties.

Guigo II., called the Angel, on account of his great
piety, was a worthy successor of Dom Basil, and gave
his monks a bright example of fervour and religious
perfection. He occupied himself as little as possible
with worldly affairs, and spent most of his time in
prayer and contemplation. For this reason, he resigned
his post of General of the Order, in 1180, and died the
death of a saint eight years afterwards. The miracles
which took place at his tomb brought such vast crowds
of sick persons to the monastery, that the peace of the
Religious was troubled by them. His successor, Dom
Jancelin, therefore, ordered the Saint to work no more

F

66 PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

miracles, and we are told that his command was
obeyed, and that the miracles at once ceased.

Immediately after his nomination as Procurator,
Hugh took up his abode in the lower house, where the
quarters of the lay-brothers were situated, as they,
henceforth, were to be his special charge.

From its first foundation, the Order of Carthusians
had comprised two distinct classes of monks, the choir
Religious and the lay-brothers. Even among the six
first companions of St. Bruno there were two lay-
brothers, Andrew and Guerin; and others, who felt that
they were called to a less contemplative vocation than
that of the choir monks, soon joined them. These
good Brothers were of the greatest service to the
monastery, as they cultivated the land, took care of
the flocks and herds, and followed many useful trades.
They lived under a Rule adapted to their exterior
occupations, and shared, as much as possible, in the
prayers and penances of their choir-brethren. Their
virtue and piety are attested by St. Bruno in a letter
addressed by him to the monks of the Grande Char-
treuse, during his retirement in Calabria.

After congratulating the whole community on their
progress in perfection, the holy patriarch continues :
" Now I have something to say to you also, my beloved
lay-brothers. My soul magnifies the Lord when I
consider the immensity of His mercy towards you,
worthy imitators, as you are, of the virtues of your
Prior. That loving Father is delighted to be able to
praise you so highly to me. Let us rejoice with him
that, although you have never been initiated in worldly
learning, your hearts possess not only the love of God,
but a knowledge of His sacred law, which He Himself
has written there. Your good works show that you
know Him, and love Him. Your obedience is perfect,
and obedience is the accomplishment of the commands

PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 67

of God, the key and the seal of all religious discipline ;
obedience is always accompanied by deep humility,
and continual patience, by the love of God, and by true
charity to all. Since you practise this virtue of obedi-
ence in such perfection, it is a proof that you have
gathered the sweetest and most profitable fruits of the
Holy Spirit."

Amongst those to whom these precious words of
the holy founder were addressed, there may perhaps
have been a young lay-brother who actually survived
St. Bruno more than a century, dying in 1204. St. Hugh's
biographer speaks of him at some length on account of
his intimate association with our Saint both at the
Grande Chartreuse and at Witham. We will give a
short account here of what he says of this Religious,
for nothing can afford a clearer insight into the life
and virtues of the early Carthusian lay-brothers.

Brother Aynard for such was the name of the holy
man had taken an active part in the foundation of
several monasteries, and in many countries his zeal
and courage, added to his faith and charity, had drawn
upon him the admiration of all. One instance alone
will give an idea of this. When he was in Spain,
assisting in the new foundation at Scala Dei, in the
diocese of Tarragona, he formed a great friendship with
two pious hermits of the neighbourhood. The Saracens
suddenly invaded that part of the country, and after
fearful carnage, carried off many prisoners, among
whom were the two friends of Brother Aynard. He
could not rest until he had obtained permission to go
and search for them in Africa. He discovered them at
last, and was so successful in ingratiating himself with
their master, a rich and powerful man, that he obtained
their freedom without paying any ransom. During his
stay in the midst of these Mahometans, he fearlessly
denounced their errors, and declared the truths of the

68 PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

Catholic religion. " And this he did with so much
authority, that no one dared to contradict him ; and as
soon as he began to speak, he was listened to with the
greatest veneration and respect. His white hair, his
powerful voice, his flashing eyes, and the terrible
accents in which he denounced sin and oppression, no
less than his kindness and gentleness on other occa-
sions, made him revered, even by the enemies of his
faith." 1

At the time when St. Hugh was appointed Procu-
rator, Brother Aynard was at the Grande Chartreuse,
resting from the fatigues of his many journeys. He
was then already nearly a hundred years old, but he
was still so hale and vigorous, that he was selected, in
the year 1174, to * Denmark, and assist in estab-
lishing the Carthusian monastery at Lunden. It was
then that the following occurrence took place, which
well illustrates the strict discipline under which the
sons of Bruno lived.

The order to set out upon this expedition was com-
municated in full Chapter to Brother Aynard, who, we
know not why, had conceived a terrible idea of the
barbarity of the Danes. Alarmed at this unexpected
mission, the old man threw himself at the feet of his
Prior, and begged to remain where he was. But hi
presence appeared to be so necessary at Lunden, that
his prayer could not be -granted. For a moment his
courage failed him, and he allowed his repugnance to
get the better of the duty he owed his Superior.
Although he accompanied his refusal to obey with
expressions of the deepest sorrow, he was nevertheless
treated as a rebel, and in spite of his great age and
innumerable services, he was banished from the monas-
tery. Before he was received into favour again, he had
to brave the severity of a bitter winter, and travel from

1 .\fngna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 13.

PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 69

one Carthusian monastery to another, begging for pardon,
and for letters of recommendation from the Priors of
the Order. On his return to the Grande Chartreuse,
he still had to perform another penance imposed upon
him, and was afterwards sent, not to Denmark, but to
England, where we shall find him at Witham, with
St. Hugh. There he was brought into close contact
with the future Bishop, who always manifested a great
veneration for Brother Aynard, and even called him his
father, as we shall hear him relate later on.

The new Procurator maintained a firm hand of
authority over the lay-brothers, several of whom, being
of noble birth, found a difficulty at first in obeying,
instead of commanding. He took as his guide the
example of St. Honoratus, Archbishop of Aries : " On
the one hand, he forced the slothful to rise from their
tepidity ; and on the other, he restrained the ardour of
those who were too fervent, and gave peace to their
souls." All the Religious under his charge soon enrolled
themselves in the last category. For we are told :
" These lay-brothers walked in the footsteps of the
choir monks, and imitated them as far as their vocation
allowed. Without literary knowledge, they yet under-
stood the sense of the lessons of the Divine Office.
Many of them were so well acquainted with the words
of the Old and New Testament, that if the reader made
a mistake, they were aware of it at once, and if they
thought they might take the liberty would cough to
draw his attention to it." 1

St. Hugh deeply regretted the calm of his solitary
cell ; he had only left it through obedience ; but this
regret did not hinder him from faithfully fulfilling all
the duties of his office. In the temporal affairs, which
were now his province, he displayed a rare prudence,
and an accuracy of judgment which made his advice
1 Magna Vita, bk. i. ch. 10.

70 PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

valuable to all. Those who consulted him on any
matter never had cause to regret their decisions. But
when he had ceased speaking of temporal things, he
always ended by turning the conversation upon those
which are eternal, and so lifted the souls of his hearers
above the interests of this world to the thought of Heaven.

He practised the advice given in the Constitutions
to the monk who should hold the office of Procurator :
44 Although the Procurator must in some degree follow
the example of Martha, and be occupied with many
cares, let him not altogether neglect the silence and
peace of the cloister. On the contrary, when the
necessary business of the house has been attended to,
let him retire to his cell, and there find a safe refuge,
where he can read, pray, and meditate, forget the
agitation and anxiety of his exterior duties, and prepare
in the secret of his heart for the spiritual advice he will
have to give to the brethren assembled in Chapter." l

In addition to the care of the lay-brothers and
servants of the monastery, it was the duty of the
Procurator also to welcome and entertain the numerous
guests, who already, even in those days, began to visit
the lower house. He met them, saluted them, showed
them the rooms appointed for their use, unless he
considered them worthy of being admitted into the
monastery itself, a privilege which for a long time was
granted only to Bishops and monks. Strangers received
a most favourable impression of his courtesy and kind-
ness, which soon became famous. But, penetrated as
he was with the spirit of the Gospel, he had a special
predilection for the poor, who well knew their way to
the Grande Chartreuse. He joyfully distributed the
alms permitted by the Rule, and when he was unable
to supply all their wants, spoke to them in words so
touching and consoling, that they recalled the language

1 L'unsueludines Guigonis, eh. xvi.

PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 71

of Holy Scripture : " Shall not the dew assuage the
heat ? so also the good word is better than the gift." *
The gentle kindness of St. Hugh did not stop here.
It was extended even to the birds and squirrels of the
forest. He knew how to tame them by his voice ; they
came round him fearlessly and took food from his hand,
while he was making his own meal. It cost him some-
thing to relinquish this custom, when it was forbidden
by his Prior, who thought it might be a cause of dis-
traction. 2

Notwithstanding his numerous exterior occupations,
he had obtained such command over himself, that he
could enter into recollection immediately, at will.
When he mounted the steps leading from the lower
house, and came into the monastery choir for Divine
Office on Sundays and feast-days, he took off his cloak
before entering the church, and said, playfully, to his
manifold cares : " Stay here with my cloak ; when
Office is over, I will take you all up again." 3

He would gladly have been delivered altogether
from these cares and allowed to return to the peace of
his cell, but his administration was too successful for
this favour to be granted. The whole country rang
with his praises. The venerable Prior Guigo never
ceased congratulating himself on the possession of such
a treasure, and delegated to him a substantial part of the
burthens of administration. To the monks and lay-
brothers his instructions, practical as they were and
full of fire and unction, were a treat eagerly looked
forward to, and alike among rich visitors and among
the poor of the surrounding district, his name was held
in benediction. He had spent about seven years in
his post of Procurator, and was about forty years of
age, when he was again assailed by the same terrible

Ecclus. xviii. 16. 2 Giraldus Camb. ii. i. Vita Metrica, vv. 344 351.
3 Sutor, De Vita Cartusiana, bk. ii. 3 5.

72 PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

temptation which had before tormented him. The
direct action of the devil was plainly to be seen, and
our Saint suffered so fearfully under his continual and
renewed attacks, that it almost cost him his life.
Nevertheless, he did not lose hope, but went on
struggling manfully, imploring the help of God,
redoubling his prayers and penances, and seeking
assistance from the sacraments. At last, through the
mercy of God, his deliverance came.

One night, sleepless in his lonely cell, still tempted,
and still fighting with the angel of darkness, still almost
driven to despair, and still calling upon his crucified
Lord to help him, he sank, as the dawn approached,
for a few moments into the sleep of utter exhaustion.
Thereupon, he saw, coming towards him, the radiant
form of his old Prior, Dom Basil, who had died a few
days before. 1 In a sweet voice, the glorified Saint said
to Hugh : " My son, what are you doing there prostrate
and exhausted on the floor ? Rise and tell me with
confidence what is your necessity." " Oh, my good
Father," replied the sufferer, " you who have always
shown me such kindness, come to my help in this
terrible temptation, or I shall die." " Yes, my son,"
said Dom Basil, " I have come, on purpose to deliver
you." At these words of his Heaven-sent physician,
Hugh felt that the wounds of his soul were healed.
When the blessed vision had disappeared, he awoke,
and the temptation was gone. 2 His strength returned,

1 The text of the Magna Vita followed by Mr. Dimock reads, ante
aliquot annos "a few years before " This must be wrong, and the copy
used by Dom Le Couteulx has dies. Mr. Dimock further supposes that
Dom Basil died in 1173. He resigned his office in 1173, but lived until
1179. This fact completely upsets Mr. Dimock's chronology, and is
referred to below in the note to bk. i. ch. 9. [ED.]

Magna Vita, bk. . ch. 2. Another writer, St. Hugh's chaplain tells
tnbuted the same miraculous cure to an apparition of the Blessed
B, but the holy Bishop of Lincoln himself related it to his biographer
as it is given here.

PROCURATOR OF THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 73

his hopes revived, and so complete was the cure, that
in after years he told a friend and confidant, that he
had never again been assailed by that especial tempta-
tion, or assailed so very slightly, that he was able at
once to recognize and overcome it.

Only a few days after this wonderful deliverance,
some noble ambassadors from England, headed by the
Bishop of Bath, arrived at the Grande Chartreuse.
They were the bearers of letters from the King of
England, Henry II., demanding our Saint as Prior of
the new Carthusian monastery at Witham.

God had humbled His servant, that He might
afterwards exalt him. He had convinced St. Hugh of
his own nothingness, to make of him the instrument
of His mercy. St. James tells us : " Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation : for when he hath been
proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God
hath promised to them that love Him." 1

1 St. James i. 12.

CHAPTER V

HENRY II., KING OF ENGLAND, FOUNDS THE
CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY OF WITH AM.

THERE were already more than thirty Carthusian
foundations in France, in Italy, in Switzerland, in
Spain, in Austria, and in Denmark. When it was the
will of God to introduce the holy sons of St. Bruno
into England, He made use, as His instrument, of a
monarch who was the persecutor of one of His greatest
Saints. The foundation of Witham is intimately con-
nected with the death of that brave martyr for the
liberty of the Church, St. Thomas of Canterbury.
Thus, from his blood, and doubtless through his inter-
cession, there sprang into being a noble progeny to
inherit his sacrifice, and to perpetuate his inviolable
attachment to the cause of Jesus Christ.

While the holy Archbishop was in the midst of his
struggle against the tyranny of Henry II., he had had
the consolation of seeing the sons of St. Bruno declare
in his favour. They were men who cared little for the
favour of princes when truth and justice were at stake.
Accordingly Dom Basil, then Prior of the Grande
Chartreuse, wrote in his own name and in the name
of his religious brethren, the following letter, which
deserves a place in history :

11 To Henry, King of England, the Brothers of the
Carthusian Order.

"To the most excellent and valiant King of the

THE MONASTERY OF WITH AM. 75

English, whom they desire to embrace in the charity
of Christ, the Carthusian Brothers, who aspire to be
poor in spirit, express their hope that he may so reign
in this world, that he may obtain an eternal crown.

u The holy man Job, seated like a King in the midst
of his armed men, was nevertheless the consoler of the
afflicted. As to you, O Prince ! the King of kings and
Lord of lords has opened His hand, and multiplied
your possessions, therefore, you must always remember
that awful menace of Holy Scripture : ' To him that is
little, mercy is granted : but the mighty shall be mightily
tormented.' l And the Psalmist exclaims : ' Glory to
Him that is terrible, even to Him who taketh away the
spirit of princes : to the terrible with the kings of the
earth.' 2

" We hear on all sides, by public rumour alike from
the east and from the west, that you are laying a heavy
and intolerable burden upon the churches of your
kingdom, and that you require of them unheard-of
things, things without precedent, or at least, things
which the kings who have reigned before you ought
never to have insisted upon, although they may some-
times have claimed them. 3 It may be perhaps, that in
your time, and on account of the wisdom which God
has given you, the evils of such a grievous affliction
may be moderated to a certain extent ; but after your
death, another king may arise, who will devour the
Church with open mouth, and who will harden his
heart as Pharaoh did, saying : I know not the Lord ;
neither will I let Israel go.

" Spare, we beseech you, spare your kingly dignity,
spare your greatness, spare your royal line, spare the

1 Wisdom vi. 7. 2 Psalm Ixxv. 13.

3 ' ' Ecclesias regni vestri intolerabiliter affligitis, et exigitis ab eis inaudita
quaedam et inconsueta, quae, si quaesierunt, quasrere tamen non debuissent
antiqui Reges." (From the Letters of St. Thomas of Canterbury, bk. ii.
letter 70.) The grievances of the Saint are well summed up in these lines.

Till-: MONASTERY OF WITH AM.

honour of your name. You, to whom nothing is want-
.md whose power is so vast, do not leave to your
descendants an example of tyranny; look with pitying
eyes upon the grief and desolation of the Holy Church,
which is now almost everywhere trampled underfoot,
and console her affliction, like a King, ceasing not to
defend and protect her."

This generous proceeding and noble language recalls
to our minds the zeal of the first hermits, who, on the
approach of persecution, quitted their beloved deserts,
to undertake the defence of the truth and to remonstrate
eloquently and powerfully with the heathen Emperors.

Those who knew so well how to write their com-
plaints, were considered worthy to plead the cause of
the Church by word of mouth. Alexander III. having
in vain sent two Cardinals to appease the anger of the
King, thought it would be better to try another kind of
mediation, which based its hopes of success upon the
personal holiness of the mediators. He therefore
addressed himself to St. Anthelmus, 1 then Bishop of
Belley, and to the General of the Carthusians, Dom
Basil, and instructed them to deliver to Henry II. two
letters, one of which was couched in more indulgent
terms, while the other contained a formal threat to
allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to put in force all
canonical penalties against the King and his advisers.
This second letter was only to be delivered in case the
first had no effect.

At the same time the Sovereign Pontiff, fearing lest
this deputation might be delayed or prevented by
unforeseen circumstances from reaching its destination,

1 St. Anthelmus, who was also a Carthusian, had been one of St. Hugh s
cessors in the office of Procurator at the Grande Chartreuse. After
that he became General of the Order, and later still, Bishop of Belley.
He died in 1 178. -[ED.]

THE MONASTERY OF WITH AM. 77

sent the same letters with the same instructions to two
other Carthusians, Dom Simon, Prior of Mont-Dieu, 1
and Dom Engelbert, Prior of Val-Saint-Pierre. 2 These
were the two Religious who executed the orders of the
Pope, with as much firmness as prudence. They in-
formed Alexander III. of the result of their endeavours
in a letter which runs thus : " In conformity with the
commands of Your Holiness, we delivered your letters
of admonition to the illustrious King of England,
imploring him earnestly to obey your instructions, to
receive the Archbishop of Canterbury again into his
favour, to restore to him the peaceful possession of his
see, and to allow him to govern his Church without
interference. We waited a long time in hope, praying
God to touch the heart of the King. At last, seeing
that all our patience was in vain, we executed your
orders and on the occasion of an interview between
the two monarchs (of France and England) we delivered
to the King of England your letter threatening him
with excommunication."

Henry II. would only make evasive replies to the
envoys of the Holy See, but he was not offended by
their courageous attitude, and conceived a high esteem
for the Order to which they belonged.

Every one knows the terrible sequel to these events.
St. Thomas a Becket at last obtained permission from
the King to return, after his seven years of exile. But
on hearing of the first energetic measures of the great
Archbishop, Henry II., in one of the fits of passion
which were too common with him, exclaimed in the

1 A Carthusian monastery situated on the River Bar, in the diocese of
Rheims. St. Thomas of Canterbury had spent some time there before
these negotiations, and was acquainted with Prior Simon. (See La
Chartreuse de Mont-Dieu, by the Abbe" J. Gillet, p. 150. Rheims, 1889.)

2 A Carthusian monastery in the forest of Thie"rache, diocese of
Soissons.

7 8 THE MONASTERY OF WITHAM.

hearing of his courtiers : " Will no one deliver me from
the insolence of this priest ? " Acting upon these words,
four knights of the Court at once set out to satisfy
what they believed to be the desire of the King ; and
a few days afterwards, on the evening of the 2gth of
December, 1170, the holy Archbishop of Canterbury
fell dead under their repeated blows, saying with his
last breath : " I am ready to die for the Lord ; may my
blood give the Church liberty and peace."

The tomb of the martyr became so famous through
the numerous miracles which took place there, and
the indignation of the whole of Europe was so great
against his murderers, that the King of England had
no peace until he had done public penance for his
crime beside the body of his illustrious victim. Then
the Bishop of London, speaking in his name, protested
before the assembled crowd that the King had never
really desired the death of the Primate, but had been
the cause of it by his hasty and violent words. The
King afterwards received the discipline in public from
the hands of the Bishops and monks there present
(July n, 1174).

But before this spontaneous act, the Papal Legates
had required several conditions from Henry II. as the
price of his reconciliation with God and the Church.
The first of these was the revocation of the too famous
Constitutions of Clarendon, which had formed the principal
cause of his quarrel with St. Thomas of Canterbury.
Furthermore, the King having made a vow to take the
cross and visit the Holy Land for three years, and
being afterwards unable to execute this design, he got
his vow commuted and founded two Carthusian houses,
one at Liget in Touraine, the other at Witham in
England. 1

Dom I,- Cotit.-ulx, Annales^ an. 1170 and 1178, vol. ii. pp. ^25,
449. sea.

THE MONASTERY OF WITHAM. 79

The demesne of Witham, situated in the county of
Somerset, and in the diocese of Bath, was of large
extent. It was formally made over to the Carthusian
Order by their own choice, with its lands and forests,
its pastures and preserves, its possessions and privileges
of every kind. We still possess the Royal Charter
which enumerates these several gifts, and which freed
the monastery from all rents and charges payable to
the Crown, and from all interference from foresters or
their subordinates. In this document Henry II.
declares that " for the good of his soul, and of the
souls of his predecessors and successors, he builds
on his demesne of Witham a house of the Order of
Carthusians, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
of the Blessed John the Baptist, and of All Saints."
This last title was the one which was to distinguish
the new foundation. 1

At the request of the King of England, the first
colony of monks was sent over from the Grande
Chartreuse in 1178. It was headed by Dom Norbert,
and comprised Brother Aynard and Brother Gerard of
Nevers.

Severe sufferings awaited the little band at Witham.
No preparations had been made for them, and nothing
had been done to facilitate the immense labour which
the new foundation entailed. A thousand unexpected
privations were added to the austerities of their Rule.
And to crown their misery, they were received with

1 The seal of the Charterhouse of Witham represents our Divine Lord
on the Cross, between the Blessed Virgin and St. Mary Magdalen. A rich
canopy surmounts this group ; and below, in a niche, appears an abbot
with his crozier. The legend is this : " s. COE DOMUS BE MARINE D" WITH AM
ORDINIS CARTHUS," i.e., Sigillum Commune Domus Beatce Maries de
Witham, Ordinis Carthusiani. For further details of Witham, see
Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 959 ; Pandectce Monasteriorum Anglice ;
Pits and Bale, De Scriptotibus Britannia, Cent. 2, cap. Ixiii. ; and most
recently, E, M, Thompson, The Somerset Carthusians,

THE MONASTERY OF WlTHAM.

mistrust and dislike by their immediate neighbours, who
feared encroachment from the foreign monks. The
very site of the proposed monastery was encumbered
by the houses of serfs and tenants, whose duty it was
to cultivate the royal demesne. No steps had been
taken to indemnify these people and settle them else-
where. To find a little quiet and peace, the poor
monks were obliged to build for themselves a few
simple wooden huts in the depths of the forest, which
they enclosed with a palisade of planks. This tem-
porary arrangement lasted a long time, before any
better habitation could be constructed for them. To
all these hardships was added the inconvenience of
settling among a strange people, whose manners and
customs were in many respects at variance with their
own, and whose blind prejudices and conflicting interests
prevented them from doing justice to the good intentions
of the new-comers.

Dom Norbert, accustomed to the peaceful life of his
cell, broke down under the weight of all these cares and
troubles. He soon returned to the Grande Chartreuse,
by the advice of his brothers in Religion, who hoped to
see him come back to them again with renewed
strength and courage, or else to have his place filled by
another Prior, more fitted for so difficult a position.
It was this last plan which was adopted at the Grande
Chartreuse. Dom Norbert was placed at the head of
another house of the Order, and a new Prior was sent
to \Vitham. But he had the same vexations to contend
with, and strength and spirit failing, he died a holy
death, which released him happily from pain and
trouble, but left his devoted little band of brothers in
greater desolation than before.

The King of England, on hearing of what had
happened, seems to have been somewhat piqued and mor-
titicd at this failure of his new foundation. He did not

THE MONASTERY OF WITHAM. 81

like to confess himself baffled in an undertaking in which
other princes had succeeded. He was ready therefore
to welcome a piece of advice which was given him about
that time, and which in the end solved the difficulty.

While he was on a visit to his possessions in France,
he entered into conversation with a nobleman of
Maurienne, 1 to whom he spoke of the Carthusians and
their embarrassments in the new foundation, and
asked what would be the best step he could take for
its success and prosperity. To this the nobleman
replied : " My Lord King, there is only one way that
I know of, but I am sure it will prove an effectual
one. At the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse
dwells a monk, a man of distinguished family, but
whose character is still more noble than his birth :
he is called Hugh of Avalon. He is endowed with
every virtue, and beloved by all who know him.
You have only to set eyes upon him to feel drawn
to become his friend. When he speaks, he is listened
to as though his words came from God and the
holy Angels. This is the man whom you must
get to cultivate and watch over the growing tree of
your young foundation ; this is the man under whose
care it will soon bear fruit in abundance. The whole
Church in England, I am sure, will feel itself ennobled
by the sanctity of this holy Religious. But I must tell
you beforehand, that you will have great difficulty in
inducing his brother-monks to part with him, and he
himself will never give his consent unless he is con-
strained by the voice of obedience. You must therefore

1 In 1173, Humbert III., Count of Maurienne, was one of the arbi-
trators who endeavoured to compose the differences between Henry II.
and the Count of St. Giles, the brother of Raymond of Toulouse. On this
occasion, a treaty of marriage was entered into between Henry's son John,
who was afterwards King, and Agnes, Humbert's daughter, who died a
year later in 1174. It is not surprising therefore to find noblemen of
Maurienne frequenting the English Court.
G

82 THE MONASTERY OF WITHAM.

send ambassadors who have the tact and energy which
are needful, and you must use all the influence you can
bring to bear to gain your end. He is the one man
who can deliver you from all your anxieties, and who
will make his holy Order flourish in your kingdom, so
that it will be a lasting monument to the glory of your
Majesty. You will find him perfect in sweetness and
patience, in greatness of soul and consideration for all.
No one will ever complain of having him as a neighbour ;
no one will shrink from him as a foreigner ; but every
one will treat him as a fellow-countryman, as a brother,
and a friend. For he carries the whole human race
in his heart, and loves all men with the love of perfect
charity." 1

Thus spoke the lord of Maurienne. The King
listened to him with attention, and thanked him warmly.
And without losing any time, he acted upon the advice
he had received, and sent a deputation to the Grande
Chartreuse. Reginald, surnamed the Lombard, Bishop
of Bath,' 2 was at their head, and he was accompanied
by several other persons of high rank, and of great
wisdom and experience.

1 Mngna Vita, bk. ii. ch. i.

a Reginald Fitz-Jocelyn was named Bishop in 1173, and consecrated
the year following by Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury St. Peter,
Archbishop of Tarentaise, being present in the Church of Saint-Jean-
de-Maurienne. He was called the Lombard because he had been
educated in Lombardy, but he was an Englishman by birth. In 1178,
he was appointed Papal Legate to deal with the heretics of Toulouse,
and died in 1192, just as he had been elected Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the account of Bishop Reginald given in the Dictionary of Xational
Biography, it is stated that Reginald went to the Grande Chartreuse in
1174, immediately after his consecration. This must certainly be an error ;
for the foundation of Witham was only undertaken upon the non-fulfilment
of the vow of joining the Crusade ; and Henry having obtained a three
years' respite from the Pope, would seem not to have given up the idea of
this Crusade before 1177. (See Giraldus Cambrensis, Rolls Series, vol. viii.
pp. 167170.) It seems probable that Bishop Reginald visited the
Chartreuse on his way back from the Lateran Council in 1180. (Cf. the
notice of his life in Archaologict, vol. 1.) [ED.]

THE MONASTERY OF WITHAM. 83

NOTE TO BOOK I. CHAPTER VIII.

Giraldus Cambrensis, Ralph Niger, and other con-
temporaries, represent King Henry II. as having sworn
to found three religious houses in compensation for his
abandonment of the Crusade imposed as a penance for
the murder of St. Thomas, and they say nothing of
the Charterhouse at Liget. Both the two first-named
writers comment severely upon the scandalous way in
which, s they allege, Henry evaded the obligation.
According to them, he made the substitution of regular
canons for seculars at Waltham count as one founda-
tion, and for another he expelled the nuns of Amesbury
upon some charge of irregularity, true or false, and
replaced them with a colony from Fontevraud. As for
the third, Giraldus professes not to know which that
could have been, but supposes it must have been the
Charterhouse at Witham. Henry II., as we shall see,
became a devoted admirer and friend of St. Hugh, and
it cannot be wholly foreign to the purpose of this
biography to point out that the charge thus made
against the King, though repeated apparently without
suspicion by such an historian as Bishop Stubbs, is
based upon little more than malicious gossip. The
tradition that both Witham and Liget were founded
by Henry as part of the penance enjoined upon him
for the murder of St. Thomas, seems to stand out quite
clearly in the early Carthusian chronicles. 2 We do not
know which was the third foundation, but the Index to
Dugdale's Monasticon shows that there is quite a respect-
able list of religious houses established by Henry II. in
England, and even though these are for the most part

1 See Stubbs, Preface to Benedict of Peterborough (Rolls Series), vol. ii.
p. xxx. ; and Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Series), vol. viii. p. xxvi. and 170.

2 See the MS. authorities quoted by Dom Le Couteulx (Annales, vol. ii.
pp. 459, 451), and it must be remembered that Dom Le Couteulx himself
wrote more than two hundred years ago. .

THE MONASTERY OF \V1T11AM.

small and unimportant, they at least show that Giraldus
and Ralph Niger are in this matter only retailing
scandal, not writing serious history. Furthermore, there
can be no question that Henry II. founded other monas-
teries in his continental dominions. Dom Le Couteulx,
for instance, states that he entirely built the Priory of
St. Julian, near Rouen, which at a later date passed
into Carthusian hands, and that he is also styled founder
of the Cistercian Abbey of Valasse, in the same diocese.
With regard to the Charterhouse of Le Liget (de
Ligeto), near Loches in Touraine, we are told that at
the end of the last century the following inscription
might be read over the principal door of the monastery :

Anglorum Henricus Rex Thomae caede cruentus
Ligeticos fundat Carthusiae monachos.

Although there has been some controversy about
the exact date of the foundation, 1 M. Carre de Busserolle
agrees in thinking that although the Carthusians may
have had the idea of establishing themselves there as
early as 1170, the actual foundation was not made
before 1 178.2 Two charters are preserved connecting
this establishment with Henry II. The first is a grant
made by Harvey, Abbot of Villeloin, at the instance of
Henry II., bestowing upon the Carthusians the territory
of Liget, cum ptrtinenciis suis. The document mentions
that in return for this cession of land, the King of
England had paid to the Abbot a sum of one hundred
pounds, and had released him from the burthen of
furnishing two hawks. This deed seems to belong to
the year 1178. Somewhat later, about the year 1187,
we have another instrument drawn up in the name of
Henry 1 1. .confirming the Carthusians in the possession

1 i'f. Dom. Le Couteulx, Annates Ordinis Carthusiani, vol. ii. p. 452.
a Dictionnaire Gtographiquc, Historigue, &c. de la Province de
Touraine, vol. iv. pp. 53, seq.

THE MONASTERY OF WITH AM. 85

of this territory, and releasing them from all dues and
services which had formerly been paid upon it. This
foundation of Le Liget was afterwards confirmed by
King John in 1199.

The unfairness of Giraldus' account of Henry's
religious foundations has previously been noticed by
Miss Kate Norgate, England under the Anglian Kings,
vol. ii. p. 198, note. But I should be curious to know
on what authority she states that " throughout his
whole dominions only six religious houses in the strict
sense could claim him as their founder." She certainly
does not include in this list the Priory of St. Julian and
the Abbey of Valasse. [ED.]

CHAPTER IX.

ST. HUG PI AS PRIOR OF WITH AM.
1 1 80.

Tin- Ambassadors from the King of England took the
precaution of securing the assistance of the Venerable
Bishop of Grenoble, who was also a Carthusian ; his
name was Jean de Sassenage. 1 They persuaded him to
accompany them to the Grande Chartreuse, and to lend
his support to the request they were commissioned to
make.

As soon as they arrived at the monastery, they
presented the Prior with letters from the King, solicit-
ing the despatch of St. Hugh to England. To this
written message they added the strongest and most
persuasive words. But, in spite of their eloquence,
they perceived that their request caused the deepest
sorrow to the whole community. The Prior especially
was very much distressed, and asked that time might
be given him to deliberate upon the course which he
ought to adopt.

A consultation in full Chapter was then held, in
which the opinion of each individual monk was taken.
The Prior, Dom Guigo, who spoke first, made formal
opposition to the King's request. As to the rest of the

1 Jeande Sassenage was appointed Bishop in 1156, and died in 1219.
To the end he displayed the same spirit of piety and gentleness which is
so highly commended by St. Hugh's biographer : /><// piissimus tt
monac/iut -c.tlde h.-ntslns ft ///</;/* //<///. (.l/,/ A v/,/ 1'ita, bk. ii. c. 4. C'f.
Le Couteulx, Annales Ord. Curtfius, vol. iii. p. 436.)

PRIOR OF WITH AM. 87

monks, opinions were divided. Some were unwilling
that a man of so much merit should be sent out of the
country, as they considered him to be more useful to
the Order at large by remaining where he was ; others
declared that the King's demand had been inspired by
God, and that it was not prudent to return a refusal.
Among these last was Dom Bovo, who succeeded
Hugh later on, as Prior of Witham, 1 and who gave
an account of all these events to the Saint's biographer.
" Do you not see," said Dom Bovo, " that Providence
is thus disposing all things, to make the sanctity of our
Order shine forth throughout the world, in the person
of our beloved brother ? Do not imagine that it will be
possible for us to keep him hidden here much longer,
under the bushel of our obscurity ? Believe me, in a
very short time you will hear of his being placed on a
candlestick, as a bright and shining light, and illumi-
nating the whole Church. The virtues of Dom Hugh
have accustomed me for a long time to look upon him
as a Bishop, rather than a monk."

At last Hugh himself was asked for his opinion, and
told to speak freely. He replied thus : " I have learned
to renounce my own will, and to look on it as of no
account, but since you ask me what I think, I will tell
you frankly. Since I have been in this holy house,
where your admonitions and example have helped me
so greatly, I have not been able, for one single day, to
govern my own soul. How can you then suggest that
I should be sent away from you, into a strange land, to
govern the souls of others ? How can I found a new
Chartreuse, when I have not been able myself to keep
the precepts of our Fathers ? If you will allow me to tell
you respectfully what I think, I will say that such a

1 Dom Bovo was Prior of Witham until 1200. He then retired to the
Grande Chartreuse, and died there shortly afterwards, on the loth of
December. He had been a Carthusian for more than fifty years,

88 PRIOR OF WITH AM.

proposal cannot be seriously entertained for a moment,
ami that there is nothing in it which calls for delibe-
ration like this. Let there be an end of the matter as
far as I am concerned, but do you, my brothers, hasten
to choose, either from among yourselves, or from some
other community of our Order, a man who will be
capable of doing all the King requires : send him to
England with the Ambassadors. Make a wise reply to
these wise envoys ; tell them that you are giving them
a better gift than they have asked for, and that, instead
of the man whom they named by mistake, you are
sending them the one they would really have chosen,
had they known of him. In this way their desires will
be satisfied, and they will rejoice at the exchange."

This humble answer, far from having the desired
effect, only served to show Hugh's virtue to greater
advantage. The two Bishops and their companions
persevered in their request, and finally succeeded in
persuading all, with the exception of the Prior. The
Saint, therefore, saw but one way of escaping from the
arguments brought to bear against him ; he said that
he would be guided by the decision of his Prior, who,
as he knew, would never willingly let him go. The
Bishop of Grenoble then took Dom Guigo on one side,
and implored him to consent to this sacrifice. " God
is my witness," replied he, "that such a sentence
shall never pass my lips. Never will I command Dom
Hugh to abandon me in my old age, and to plunge our
whole community into mourning." But at last, overcome
by the repeated petitions of all, the Prior turned to the
Bishop of Grenoble and said : " I can never willingly
send Dom Hugh from me, but I leave the matter in
your hands ; do as you will, and I will abide by your
decision. You are our Bishop, our Father, and our
Brother. If you command him to depart, I will make
no further opposition."

PRIOR OF WITH AM. 89

He could say no more, for tears choked his
utterance, and all those present shared the emotion
which he felt. But a decision had to be come to, and
the Bishop of Grenoble was urged to speak his mind.
" My beloved brethren," said this venerable prelate,
" it is not for me to teach you the ways of God. You
know them better than I, and your lives are the proof
of it. And so I will only recall to your remembrance an
event in the life of the great St. Benedict, which will
show you how those who have gone before you have
acted under the like circumstances. When the blessed
Bertram, Bishop of Le Mans, induced St. Benedict to
send him his especially loved son St. Maurus, to under-
take the foundation of a new monastery, there was the
same deep grief and the same reluctance on the part of
his brothers in Religion to part with Maurus as you are
now experiencing. But St. Benedict gently reproved
them for their display of feeling, and he pointed out
that it was wrong to grieve over the will of the Divine
Master. ' Beware,' said he, * do not give way to your
sorrow. It may be that, in combating this choice, you
are only setting yourselves in opposition to Almighty
God Himself.' 1

" For you, my beloved brother Hugh, the moment
has come when you must follow Him in whose foot-
steps you have always desired to tread. The only Son
of the Eternal Father, quitting the ineffable tranquillity
He enjoyed in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, clothed
Himself in our human nature for the salvation of the
world. You also must make the sacrifice of your quiet
cell, and of the companionship of the brothers whom
you love. Do not hesitate to make it bravely, for the
sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. He will reward you
after this exile, in His Kingdom of perfect happiness
and rest. In His name, I, His unworthy servant,

i Cf. Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, January isth.

PRIOR OF WITHAM.

command you to depart, for His greater glory, for the
remission of your sins, and for your everlasting welfare.
I command you formally, in virtue of holy obedience, to
accept the charge that is laid upon you. Depart in
peace, with these venerable Ambassadors who have
come so far to seek you. Go to England, to build up
and govern our new foundation at Witham."

Perceiving that the Bishop's decision was un-
alterable, Hugh, without another word, embraced his
brothers in Religion, and placed himself at the dis-
position of the English ambassadors.

A few days after he was presented to Henry II.,
who received him very graciously, and sent him with
an honourable escort to Witham. There he was
welcomed with great joy by the suffering monks, who
looked upon him as an angel of God, sent for their
deliverance. And their hopes were not doomed to
disappointment on this occasion, for from that day
the monastery of Witham was to be all that its name
implied. Witham, as Hugh's contemporary biographer
reminds us, is wit-home, " the house of wisdom." He
who was henceforth to be the guide and Superior
there, was "a truly wise Christian, and he was destined
to draw to himself other wise souls whose thoughts and
aspirations were fixed upon Heaven alone." 1

NOTE TO BOOK I. CHAPTER IX.

While it is not compatible with the scope of the
present work to enter at any length into questions of
chronology, it seems desirable to justify the date which
the author of the Life here translated has prefixed to
tliis chapter. There can be no reasonable doubt that
Mr. Dimock, in fixing upon the year 1175 as the epoch
of St. Hugh's coming to Witham, has fallen into a
1 Magna Vita, book ii. c. 5.

PRIOR OF WITH AM. 91

somewhat serious error, and that the Saint did not
really set foot in England until nearly five years later.
In this mistake Mr. Dimock has been followed by all
subsequent English writers by Canon Perry, Miss
Thompson, the contributors to the Dictionary of National
Biography, &c. ; but they seem to have accepted his
conclusions without examining the evidence, and the
data now available from several independent sources
may be considered to put the year 1175 entirely out of
court.

1. The foundation of Witham was undertaken as
a commutation of Henry's promise to go to the Holy
Land. The period assigned for the fulfilment of this
enterprise was the three years which began with
Christmas, H72. 1 It is distinctly asserted by Giraldus
and others that after the three years had elapsed (elapso
triennio), and Henry had as yet taken no step to set out
on the Crusade, he obtained a further delay from the
Pope upon his binding himself to erect three religious
houses. 2 This would have been after the beginning of
1176, and it is not likely that the man whom Giraldus
calls dilator in omnibus will even then have been in any
hurry to perform his promise. Moreover, after the
Carthusians had come to Witham, two different Priors
broke down before St. Hugh was sent there.

2. The vision of Prior Basil, who supernaturally
aided St. Hugh in his grievous temptation, took place
before the Saint left the Grande Chartreuse. Now,
Prior Basil died in ii7g 3 (not 1173, as stated in Mr.
Dimock's note, p. 58), and the MS. of the Magna Vita
which Dom Le Couteulx had before him, states that

1 Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, vol. vii. p. 517.

2 Giraldus Cambrensis, vol. viii. p. 170.

3 This date seems, from Dom Le Couteulx's Annales, vol. ii. p. 465, to
be established upon independent evidence by the early chroniclers of the
Order.

92 rRlOR OF WITHAM.

the vision occurred a few days, not years, as in Mr.
Dimock's text, after his death.

3. A document in the Bruton Cartulary assigns the
foundation of Witham Priory to the twenty-eighth year
of Henry !!.,*.., uSi. 1 This can be reconciled with
the supposition that Hugh came to England in 1180,
but hardly with his arrival five years earlier.

4. Although the Charter of the foundation of Witham
is not dated, it gives the names of the witnesses, and
amongst these are to be found the names of William,
Bishop of Norwich, and Prince John. Now, William
of Norwich was not consecrated until December, 1175,
and in December, 1175, Prince John was just nine years
old. It seems hardly likely that his name would be
enrolled amongst the witnesses of a charter until he
was twelve or fourteen. Moreover, the other witnesses
include several lawyers, most of whom, e.g., Geoffrey
Fitz- Peter, did not come into prominence until the
close of Henry's reign.

5. There is good reason to believe that Le Liget,

1 The memorandum thus preserved is curiously elaborate in its attempt
to fix the date of the first foundation of Witham. Seeing that the time
thus determined agrees perfectly with the year which we arrive at from
other quite independent considerations, there can be no reason for suspect-
ng its genuineness. It runs thus : " In the year of grace 1181, dominical
letter D, in the seventeenth paschal feast, being the nones of April in the
second year after leap year, the eleventh from the passion of St. Thomas,
Pope Alexander ruling the holy Roman Church in the twenty-second year
of his pontificate, the venerable father Baldwyn presiding over the church
of Canterbury, and also Reginald called Ytalicus being bishop of Bath,
Ralf de Clanville, then chief justice of England, Geoffrey fitz Peter, then
justice of the forest, by the illustrious King Henry II., in the year of his
age forty-nine, and of his reign twenty-eight, the house of the Carthusian
Order in the desert (heremo), of Wytham was newly founded. . . . After
the said house was founded, the King wished the Carthusians there to be
free from all exaction and secular strife, according to their custom, where-
fore he conferred upon the Prior and Convent (of Bruton) the church of
Smhperton in recompence for the said chapel," &c. (Somerset Record
Society, Rruton Cartulary, p. 102.)

PRIOR OF WITH AM. 93

the other Carthusian priory founded by Henry in
execution of his promise, was begun in nj8. 1 The
Carthusian chronicler assigns the commencement of
both to the same year. This allows two years to have
been spent by the Carthusians in an abortive attempt
to establish themselves before St. Hugh arrived, and
also agrees perfectly with the data of the best text of
the Magna Vita, that St. Hugh was sixty years of age
at his death, and was forty before he left the Grande
Chartreuse. [ED.]

1 Cf. Le Couteulx, Annales, vol. ii. p. 449.

CHAPTER X.

THE BUILDING OF THE NEW CARTHUSIAN
MONASTERY AT WITH AM.

THE first duty of the new Prior of Witham was to get
his monastery built, overcoming the obstacles which
had daunted his predecessors. Not only had no
beginning yet been made, but no definite plan had
been adopted for its construction. They had not settled
where the two churches were to be, the monastery
proper, with its cloisters and cells for the monks, the
lower house, with its guest-chambers and its quarters
for the lay-brothers ; in short, the whole system of
buildings which were required to make a perfect Car-
thusian monastery, after the model of the Grande
Chartreuse, had not yet even been thought of.

Hugh attentively studied the surrounding country
and its inhabitants ; he carefully considered what steps
were best to be taken, and with that clear intuition
which distinguished him, prepared his plans, and sub-
mitted them for the King's approbation, in accordance
with his previous arrangement. Henry II. admired
his prudence and moderation, adopted his plans, and
graciously promised to grant all that was needed to
carry them out.

The first step of St. Hugh was to assemble all the
tenants before him, as the possession of their land was
necessary, before he could commence the building of
the monastery, and obtain the quiet and repose which
were indispensable for such a foundation. In the

THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITH AM. 95

King's name he offered to those who were thus being
evicted a choice of two forms of compensation, either
that they should be allowed to occupy, in other manors
belonging to the Crown, farms and pastures on the
same terms as those they held at Witham ; or else,
that they should be freed from serfdom and allowed to
settle wherever they pleased. Some accepted other
grants of land ; others chose their liberty.

Hugh, with his usual charity, wished to do still
more, and requested the King to indemnify them for
any buildings they had erected, or any improvements
they had made. He asked that they might receive full
compensation for all these things, so that they might
depart willingly, and the Carthusians enter with a clear
conscience upon the land which they had occupied.
The King was inclined to raise difficulties on this score,
but St. Hugh pressed his point with as much firmness
as gentleness. " My Lord King," he said, " so long as
a single penny remains unpaid of what is justly due
to these poor people, I refuse to take possession of
Witham." The King had to give way, although he
was not particularly well pleased with this purchase
of tumble-down shanties and sheep-pens, but we can
imagine the satisfaction and joy of the tenants, and
the blessings they invoked upon their monarch and his
counsellor.

St. Hugh, however, was not yet satisfied. To have
won bare justice for his clients was a very small triumph
for a generous heart like his. By an innocent stratagem,
he thought he saw his way to a further victory. " Well
now, sire, you see," he said, jestingly, " what a rich
man I am making you, I a poor foreigner. Thanks to
me you have become the owner of many houses upon
your own lands." " Very true," returned the King,
with a smile, " but I cannot say that I am anxious to
get rich in that fashion. Your riches have almost

96 THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITHAM.

rn.uk> a bankrupt of me; and what possible purpose can
such purchases serve?" "Oh, come," said Hugh, " I
see you don't value your bargain. If your Majesty
then would perform an act which will do you honour,
give these homesteads to me, for I have not yet even
a roof over my head." Full of astonishment, the
King stared at his petitioner. " What an extraordinary
man you must be ! " he exclaimed ; '* do you suppose
that we have not the means of building a monastery
for you perfectly new. What can you want with these
old cabins ? " " It is not fitting," replied the Prior,
" that the King's Majesty should condescend to trouble
himself about such insignificant details. It is the first
favour I have asked for myself. How can you hesitate
to grant such a modest request at once?" "Well,"
said the King, " I never saw anything like this before.
Here is a perfect stranger who comes and almost takes
my property from me by force. It seems I had better
do as he bids for fear he should exact still harder con-
ditions."

It was thus with not too ill a grace that Henry
gave way before the audacity of this bold diplomatist.
St. Hugh on his part at once presented the buildings
again to their former possessors, that they might either
make use of the materials or sell them. Nothing could
have been more delicate or ingenious than the chanty
thus shown to the tenants who had been evicted, and
it succeeded, as it deserved, in banishing at once and for
ever the prejudices which had been felt against the
foreign monks.

The building of the monastery was now at last com-
menced, and soon made rapid progress. Already the
most important part was finished, and there only
remained some other details to be completed, less
important, but equally necessary, when the funds again
ran short.

THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITH AM. 97

The King's attention was engaged elsewhere, and
the troubled state of his affairs in general had effaced
the thought of Witham from his memory. There was
no money to pay the workmen, who wearied the Prior
and his monks by their reiterated complaints.

Hugh sent some of his brothers to inform the King
of all this and to implore assistance. The King received
them graciously enough, promised to interest himself
on their behalf, and to do all they asked ; but he sent
them back empty-handed, with promises alone. The
expected help did not arrive, and it was necessary to
put a stop to the work of building altogether.

The holy Prior preserved his patience and kept
silence for some time, hoping that the King would
redeem his promise. At length he sent another depu-
tation, who were received in the same manner with the
same promises but nothing more. Then discourage-
ment and despair seized upon the monks, just as had
happened before when Witham was first granted to
them. Some of them even dared to rebuke their Prior,
and accuse him of negligence and want of energy.
They said it was his duty to go himself to the King and
make his request in person.

The boldest of these censors who thus dictated
to St. Hugh, was one Brother Gerard of Nevers, a
man of great austerity and fervent piety, who had no
fear of King or potentate of this world, but who had
not learnt sufficiently how to moderate his zeal, or
control his tongue. He knew that Henry II. was in
the habit of breaking his promises, and felt certain that
without very energetic measures the foundation of the
monastery would never be accomplished. For the
matter of that, he was quite ready to go himself to
the King, and was prepared to expostulate in the
strongest terms.

Brother Gerard's vehemence was perhaps not mi-
tt

9* THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITH AM

natural, and it will surprise us the less if we make
allowances for the noble blood which flowed in his
veins. One of his relatives, William, Count of Nevers,
had been the friend and adviser of King Louis VII. of
France, before retiring from the world to end his days
as a lay-brother at the Grande Chartreuse. Nor did
he ever hesitate to reprove King Louis, whenever he
considered reproof to be advisable. The author of the
Magna Vita has left us an amusing picture of King
Louis trying ineffectually to shuffle away a chess-board
on one occasion when this mentor was unexpectedly
announced, and being roundly scolded in consequence
for his duplicity. Needless to say that the same
austere spirit accompanied William of Nevers to the
cloister, and his mortifications in his Carthusian days
are described in terms which modern sensitiveness
shrinks from repeating.

Gerard of Nevers, who was his near relative and
possibly his son, must have been a man of very
similar temperament. Nevertheless, although his com-
plaints to St. Hugh may be excused in some measure
on that account, they seem to have been sufficiently
bitter. " How long, Dom Prior," he would say, " do
you intend to have patience with this King ? Why
do you not tell him plainly that if he does not fulfil his
promises and finish our monastery we will return to
our own country ? Do you not observe that the repu-
tation of our Order is at stake, and that we are being
made ridiculous ? If your natural modesty prevents
you from speaking to this monarch as he deserves to
be spoken to, take me with you, and you shall hear the
terms in which I will address him."

The Prior, knowing the good intentions of this plain-
speaking Brother, listened to him calmly, and assembled
all the monks in consultation. It was unanimously
agreed that the Prior should set out to remonstrate with

-THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITHAM. 99

the King, and that Brother Gerard should accompany
him. " Since this is the advice of you all," said
St. Hugh, " I will adopt it. But remember, Brother
Gerard, if you speak plainly you must also speak with
moderation. The King's designs, as I have reason to
know, are not easily fathomed, and it may be that he is
only wishing to try us before granting our request. He
knows that by our profession we are bound to act upon
these words of our Divine Lord : In your patience
you shall possess your souls;' 1 and that other exhor-
tation of St. Paul : ' Let us exhibit ourselves as the
ministers of God, in much patience.' 2 Now it is only
by bearing adversities and contradictions for a long
time that we can prove we possess this virtue ; without
long-suffering, patience is not great, but small and of
no duration; without gentleness, patience cannot exist."

St. Hugh set out from Witham, accompanied b>y
Brother Gerard and Brother Aynard, the last-named
being full of courage in spite of his old age. The King
received the three monks with great respect and
veneration, and, as before, when they spoke to him of
Witham, made every conceivable promise of assistance,
excusing himself for his delay, and assuring them that
the monastery should soon be finished. But he still
avoided giving the supplies demanded ; nor did he
appoint any specific time for sending them.

Then Brother Gerard could no longer contain his
indignation. " My Lord King," he said, " you may do
exactly as you please : you may finish our monastery,
or abandon it altogether ; we will have nothing more
to do with it. As for myself, I mean to say farewell to
you, and to leave your kingdom. I shall return to the
desert of the Chartreuse. Do you think you are doing
us a favour by doling out your bread to us with such
a niggard hand ? We have no need of your charity.
1 St. Luke xxi. 19. a z Cor. vi. 4.

ioo Till-: .V/:ir MOXASTKKY AT U'lTHAM.

It is f.n better for us to return to our barren rocks in
tlu- Alps, than to have to liable with a man who thinks
tli.it CVCry penny spent upon the salvation of his soul
is \\asted and thrown away. Let him keep the money,
which he clings to so fondly, until he has to give it up
for good and all to some spendthrift heir or other.
Neither Jesus Christ nor His servants will condescend
to touch it."

These were the sort of compliments which Brother
Gerard thought fit to address to a monarch like
Henry II. While he was speaking so passionately,
Hugh endeavoured vainly to silence him, or to keep
him within due bounds. The old baronial spirit broke
loose, and, strong in the holiness of his cause, he-
gave way to all the natural impetuosity of his
character, and redoubled his reproaches, instead of
moderating them. The good Prior was overwhelmed
with confusion, and could never afterwards recall
the scene without a shudder. The King remained
apparently unmoved, he answered not a word, and
listened calmly to the storm of rebuke until it had
come to an end. At last Brother Gerard stopped.
A dead silence prevailed for several minutes, during
which Henry II. looked fixedly at the holy Prior,
who bowed down his head in silence. Then tin-
King spoke: "And you, good man, what are your
intentions ? Will you also take yourself oil and
leave my kingdom?" " No, my loid and King,"
replied St. Hugh, meekly ; " I will not leave you. I do
not despair of you. Rather do 1 ieel great pity for you.
You have so many cares; you aie u\ei whelmed with
business, which hinders you from thinking of the
interests of your soul. Other occupations are absorb-
ing your thoughts now ; but when God gives you time
for reflection, you will do all you have promised : you
will bring the good work you have begun to a happy

THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITHAM. 101

conclusion." " As I hope for salvation," exclaimed
the King, embracing the Prior as he spoke, " I swear
that you shall never leave my kingdom as long as I
live. It is from you that I will seek advice for my
soul's good ; it is with your aid that I will make reso-
lutions for the future."

With that the King sent for, on the spot, and put
into the hands of the Prior the sum of money that was
necessary for the completion of the monastery, giving
directions that the work should be proceeded with
immediately. Thus did the gentleness of St. Hugh gain
a signal victory over the King, and a victory all the
more remarkable, because the King, who was naturally
irascible, had been provoked beyond measure by the
violence of Brother Gerard. Nor must we imagine that
St. Hugh could not also, when the occasion demanded,
speak firmly and vigorously. When there was question,
not of asking relief for himself, but of asserting the
rights of the Church of God, we shall see him take quite
another attitude, and display an indomitable courage.

The Monastery of Witham was therefore completed
at last, and the Carthusians were able to enjoy there
the same peace and seclusion as in the desert solitude
they had quitted, when they came to England. 1 Few

1 It would seem that at the time the Carthusian foundation was made,
the manor of Witham was not in the immediate possession of the Crown,
but was partly in the hands of the Malet family, partly occupied by the
Austin Canons of Bruton, who had a chapel at Witham itself. These two
interests had to be purchased, and the Bruton Canons received in exchange
the advowson of South Petherton, while Ralph Malet was compensated by
a grant of land in the hundred of North Curry. Very probably these
transactions took place before St. Hugh arrived upon the scene. Witham
lay partly or entirely within the forest of Selwood, and the Priory was
sometimes known by the name of Selwood, but although the district was
somewhat thinly populated and is called eremus in Henry's Charter, it was
not a desert like the Grande Chartreuse itself. It would seem that "the
great high road from Old Sarum across Mendip skirted it on the north and
east." (See an article in the Church Quarterly Review for October, 1896,
vol. xlii. p. 391.) [ED.]

102 THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITHAM.

remains are left at this day of the first English Charter-
house ; but there is every reason for believing that the
present ancient church of the town of Witham is one
of the two erected by St. Hugh. It is small, of oblong
shape, and of a severe style of architecture, such as
befitted an Order of solitaries. 1 The church has an
apse at its eastern end, and a vaulted stone roof. In the
last century a few buildings were still to be seen, which
had escaped the general destruction under Henry VIII., 2
and some remains of these may be traced in the walls
of a farm-house that is built on the same site. The
ruins, which were destroyed in 1764, gave an idea of
the extent of the monastery, and emphasized the devas-
tation wrought by the schismatic King, who had so
little shame in pulling down the work which his pre-
decessors had built up.

NOTE TO BOOK I. CHAPTER X.

Miss E. M. Thompson, in her painstaking volume,
A History of the Somerset Carthusians, remarks of Witham
Church : " In A.D. 1458, the Prior of Witham petitioned
Bishop Beckington to be allowed to put the ' chapel of
the Friary' (i.e., the lay- brothers' chapel) to the uses of a
parish church for the secular persons living within the
bounds of the Priory. Upon the suppression, this

1 It is in the transition style of that epoch (11761186). As the Vita
Mttnca (verse 448) speaks of pillars, we may conclude that the principal
church, that of the choir-monks, had aisles on each side of the nave, and
consequently that it is the church of the lay-brothers which has been
preserved. [This conjecture of the Carthusian author is certainly correct.
See note at end of the chapter.] The I' it a Metrica speaks also of the
stone vaulting constructed by St. Hugh :

" Nam testudo riget sursum, pariesque deorsum,
Non putrescibili ligno, sed perpeti saxo. "

* Monatticon Anglic. \\. 3. Preface to the English edition of the
Magna Vita, p. xxii,

THE NEW MONASTERY AT WITH AM. 103

chapel, like others elsewhere, was probably spared
because it had really become by this time the parish
church for the people of the district. This little Church
of St. Mary of Charterhouse, Witham its severe style
of architecture harmonizing with the ascetic life of its
builders, redeemed from ugliness within by the beautiful
concentration of the arches of the stone roof is the
sole relic still in some measure devoted to its original
holy uses, not only of the first English Carthusians, but
also of the whole branch of the Order in England.
Not the least significant note of the vast difference
between their age and the present, is that this church
built, if ever church was, that it might be the house
of prayer stands with locked doors during the long
intervals between the hours of service, when it may
indeed be entered, but by the sight-seer, and not by the
would-be worshipper." The same writer adds in a
note: " About sixty years ago the little church under-
went a strange transformation. Some of the adjacent
buildings, which had not been pulled down before, were
removed, and an incongruous square tower was erected
at the west end in an entirely different style of archi-
tecture. At the same date, an old and beautifully
carved wood-screen of oak was ruthlessly destroyed ;
the entrance to the loft above it, with the steps formed
in the thickness of the masonry, may still be seen in
the north wall of the interior. In the same wall, a few
feet farther to the west, there is a blocked entrance to
a passage which Collinson, the author of the History of
Somerset, described, in A.D. 1791, as winding round the
east end of the church and leading to the monastery,
and the traces of which were probably also removed
during these alterations. In 1876, Mr. Burney, the
then parish priest \lege clergyman] of Witham, with a
wiser spirit of restoration, took down the tower, and
enlarged the church westwards in a style in keeping

io 4 THE N ir MONASTERY AT WITH AM.

with its original architecture, at the same time raising
the outer roof and covering it with red tiles."

The architecture of Witham Church is of particular
interest on account of its assumed relation to that
portion of Lincoln Cathedral which was built by
St. Hugh. On this head something will be said later
on. For the present it is sufficient to note that in the
article in Archaologia on "the English Origin of Gothic
Architecture," by Mr. J. H. Parker, vol. xliii. p. 86, an
engraving is given of the interior of Witham Church.
There is also a sketch in Miss E. M. Thompson's work
just quoted. 1 [Eo.]

1 Further information about Witham may be found in the Somerset
i-ological Society's Proceedings, vol xii. (1863), p. 35, and vol. xxi
( l8 75). P 3: Arehaologia, vol. xlvii. p. 48, and vol. 1. pp 307, 308

CHAPTER XI.

THE CONFIDENCE OF KING HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH.

"THE possessions of Henry II. were very extensive,"
the biographer of St. Hugh tells us, " besides England
and the greater part of Ireland, he ruled over Normandy,
Anjou, Aquitaine, and numerous other dependencies.
Now, in the whole of this vast territory, there was no
man to whom he listened, as he listened to the Prior of
Witham." i

The King of England had kept his word ; he had
given St. Hugh his entire confidence. Ever since the
interview in which he had declared that he chose the
Prior of Witham as his special adviser, he was con-
tinually seeking him out and wishing to profit by his
opinion. He confided all his secrets to St. Hugh,
and showed him such particular affection that the
courtiers were amazed at it. Not knowing how to
explain such conduct, they spread about the most
absurd and false reports, declaring that the Prior of
Witham must be one of the King's illegitimate sons.
And long afterwards, at the time of the death of Henry's
son and successor, Richard Cceur de Lion, the chaplain
of St. Hugh was still obliged to contradict the story in
conversing with some of the Bishop's visitors. We
know not if the servant of God ever took any trouble
himself to refute this falsehood, but we shall see as we
go on how he scorned such a title to greatness, and
i Magna Vita, bk. ii. ch, vii.

ic/> CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH.

how he showed no less horror for the vices of kings
than for those of the meanest of the people.

But the trust which Henry II. reposed in the Saint
had a more creditable cause than the courtiers either
imagined or were capable of understanding. He had
learnt wisdom from his disputes with St. Thomas of
Canterbury ; he felt old age to be approaching ; he
longed for counsel and comfort in the many grievous
trials he had to bear from his rebellious sons ; and
hence he began truly and earnestly to think of the
salvation of his soul. Although he had been a perse-
cutor of the Church, he was not an unbeliever, and at
certain times especially he felt the need of having near
him a man of God, to show him what his duty was,
and to encourage him to do it. This was why he
sought the society of St. Hugh. 1 He found there none
of the flattery and adulation with which his courtiers
sated him, but in its place, he was able to enjoy the
charm of elevated thoughts couched in language full
of sincerity and good sense, and so framed as to
expose, not to disguise, the truth. The Prior of
Witham was never weary of giving good advice to
the King, and in such a manner as to make it most
acceptable. He spoke to him of his soul, of his
family, of his subjects, of all that could tend to the
glory of God, the happiness of his people, and the
maintenance of peace. He knew how to choose the
right moment to obtain an important decision, how to
"reprove, entreat, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine." 2
Sometimes he gave forcible reasons for the course of
action he was suggesting ; sometimes he brought forward
the examples of famous men in the past ; sometimes

1 The Carthusian Monastery of Witham was on the outskirts of Selwood
Forest, in which Henry II. used often to hunt. This furnished an oppor-
tunity for his frequent interviews with the Saint.

a 3 Timothyjiv. 2.

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH. 107

he was modestly reticent, at others vehement and
inflexible. It was in vain for the King to fortify himself
against the eloquence of his saintly counsellor ; he
always had to confess himself vanquished in the end.

Hugh did not take advantage of his influence over
the King to mix himself up with worldly affairs. He
kept aloof from all political intrigue, and left the care
of earthly interests to earthly souls ; but in all matters
relating to the Church or the poor, he never affected to
be indifferent. The abuses which had so excited the
indignation of St. Thomas of Canterbury had not
entirely disappeared. If the Church in England was
now enjoying comparative peace, through the prayers
of her illustrious martyr, she was still far from having
regained all her freedom. The disastrous Constitu-
tions of Clarendon had been solemnly repudiated by
Henry II., but they were still too often put in practice.

Two flagrant abuses of power especially grieved
the holy Prior of Witham. The King continued to
seize upon vacant bishoprics and other ecclesiastical
benefices, to keep them in his possession a long time
and to appropriate their revenues. After having thus
prolonged the widowhood of these churches, he arrogated
to himself the right of appointing new pastors, contrary
to the just requirements of canonical elections. Hugh
strongly opposed this usurpation, and proved that it
could not be justified by any precedent in the time of
the predecessors of Henry II. He also inveighed
against the disastrous consequences which usually
followed such appointments, and affirmed that all the
woes of the people of God were caused by the unworthy
pastors who were too often the recipients of the royal
nomination. He spoke of the terrible chastisements,
reserved by the vengeance of Heaven, for the authors
of this scandal. " O my Prince," he would say, "you,
who are so wise, how can you, for the sake of granting

io8 CONFIDENCE OF 7/E.VflV 77. 7.V ST. 77C7G77.

a favour to a most unworthy subject, how can you
consent to become the murderer of so many souls
redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ, how can you thus
outrage the Divine Majesty and expose yourself to the
terrible torments of Hell ? If you wish to avoid this
abyss of manifold evils, you must leave the ecclesi-
astical elections free, according to the Canon Law.
All you have to do in the matter is to support and
defend the candidate who has been legitimately elected."

If the English monarch had had no other advisers,
it is probable enough that the deplorable abuses which
were laid to his charge would have been put a stop to.
But as soon as the holy Prior had left the King's
cabinet, he was succeeded by interested and un-
scrupulous courtiers, who wished to maintain these
spoliations and sacrilegious nominations, as well as all
the other tyrannical decrees against which St. Hugh
had been declaiming. Thus the good seed was often
trampled down and choked by these odious flatterers.
And yet, in spite of all obstacles, there were occasions
when it took root and bore fruit in the acts of repara-
tion, of generosity and clemency, which Henry II.
occasionally performed under the influence of the Saint.
Many churches and monasteries thus received the help
they needed ; many enemies of the King obtained their
pardon ; many violent measures were happily averted.
And if we take into consideration the savage customs
of that time, and the passionate fury which often took
possession of the King and paralyzed his reasoning
powers, we shall have a more just idea of the beneficent
influence of St. Hugh, and be less astonished at his
failure to produce a permanent impression.

Even when the Prior of Witham could not obtain
the reforms he desired, he did not cease to protest
against evil in every form. Considering as he did that
love for the poor was part and parcel of love for holy

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH. 109

Church, he felt extreme indignation at the cruel manner
in which the poor country people were treated by the
foresters and the forest-laws. He had the greatest
horror of these foresters. "Forester" he would say,
"forester means a man who remains outside (forestarius,
foris stare) ; yes, that is the right name for them, for
they will remain outside the Kingdom of God." The
King was not offended at this sally.

One day, when the holy Prior entered the palace,
he found in the antechamber several foresters, who had
just been refused an audience. They were furiously
indignant, and were speaking most disrespectfully of the
King. "Who are you then," said St. Hugh, " that
dare to use such language ? " " We are foresters," they
replied. "Then," said the man of God, "stay out of
doors" (forestarii, foyis state). Henry II. heard this
retort, and came out of his inner room laughing to greet
the intrepid Prior, who immediately said to him: " The
words you have just heard, concern you also. The poor
people who are tortured by your forest-guards, will
enter Heaven, and you and your foresters will stand
without ! " l

It needed all the ready wit of St. Hugh, and all the
ascendency which belonged to a strong character like
his to make such severe reproofs palatable.

Providence, it is true, seemed to lend its support to
these admonitions by abandoning the aged monarch
to cruel sufferings and trials. His sons rebelled against
him, and the eldest of them, Prince Henry, died in the
midst of the war he had declared against his father.
When his last moments were approaching, he sent a
messenger to the King to beg his forgiveness and
implore him to visit him on his death-bed. Henry
feared this was only a snare, and contented himself
with sending a ring from his finger, as a token of
1 Walter Mapes, De Nugis Curialium, p. 7. Camden Society.

110

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH.

forgiveness. But he learnt soon after, that his son had
died truly contrite, after receiving the Sacraments of
the Church, lying, as the custom then was, upon ashes
on the ground. 1 Such an end necessarily directed the
thoughts of his miserable father into a Christian
channel, and awakened his anxiety about his own soul.
There can be no doubt that St. Hugh will have profited
by this and similar occasions to fan the flame of his
good desires.

The King set as great a value upon the prayers of
this faithful friend, as upon his counsels. He felt
certain that to the intercession of Hugh he owed his
deliverance from many perils, and a special outpouring
of the mercy of Almighty God. On one terrible
occasion, especially, this confidence in the prayers of
St. Hugh was strikingly manifested.

The King had put to sea, at the head of a consider-
able fleet, on his return from Normandy to England,
against the advice of the captain, who feared a tempest.
No sooner had they left the shores of France at some
distance behind them, when, in the first watch of the
night, they were caught in a terrible storm. The
waves ran mountains high, the ships were powerless
in the fury of the gale, and all hope seemed lost. The
bravest among the passengers were seized with mortal
terror; some were making their confession, and pre-
paring to die ; others were imploring help from Heaven
and the protection of their patron saints.

In the midst of the tumult, suddenly the King cried
out : " O ! if my Carthusian Hugh were watching now,
if he were praying in his cell, or chanting the Divine
Office with his brothers ; for his sake, God would not
forget me ! " And then he continued, with tears ; " O
God ! whom the Prior of Witham serves so faithfully,
look Thou upon his merits and intercession; and for
1 Lingard, History of England, c. xii.

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGti. ni

his sake, take pity upon our distress in spite of the
sins which deserve Thy judgments ! "

At that very moment, the wind ceased, the tempest
gave place to a perfect calm, the angry waves subsided
and every one of the ships reached the English shore
in safety. While earnest thanksgivings were heard on
all sides, for this great deliverance, we may be quite
sure that the King was confirmed in the trust and
affection he felt for St. Hugh, which had thus been so
marvellously justified. 1

In the history of King Philip Augustus of France,
a similar fact is related, which it will not be out of
place to mention here. The King was on his journey
to the Holy Land, and a terrible storm arising, he re-
assured his sailors by saying to them : " It is now
midnight ; and this is the hour when the Cistercians
of Clairvaux rise to sing Matins. These holy monks
never forget us in their prayers ; and for their sakes,
our Lord Christ will have mercy on us. Their prayers
will obtain our deliverance from this peril." And as
the King spoke, the storm abated, and the stars shone
once more in the clear heavens. 2

If we want to understand what part the monasteries
played in the life of the middle ages, it is in such
episodes as these that we may find the information
which we seek. They help us to understand these
words of St. John Chrysostom : "The charity of the
monk is more than royal ; a king, if he is good, can
supply the bodily needs of the poor ; but the monk, by
his prayers, can deliver us from the tyranny of the
devil. A man whose soul is mortally wounded, passes
from the presence of his king, who is powerless to help
him, and flies to the monastery, the house of prayer,
just as an unarmed peasant when he sees the wolf

1 Magna Vita, bk. ii. ch. viii ; Vita Metrica, v. 611 668.
* William the Breton, Philippis, iv. 44.

112 CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HOGIl.

coining, takes shelter behind a hunter, who is brandish-
ing a spear. For as the spear is to the hunter, so is
prayer to the monk. And it is not we only who seek
for such a refuge in peril and tribulation, for kings
themselves have sought it in their hour of need, as
beggars seek the house of a rich man when the land is
swept by famine." 1

A generation which despises and neglects this means
of salvation, exposes itself to the danger of a terrible
shipwreck. It is in vain for them to boast of the skill
of their pilots ; the tempest will come, and all the frail
support upon which their hopes were built, will fail
them when they need it most. Would that even then
in the eleventh hour they would turn for succour to
God and His servants !

A thinker of modern times has written : " I think
that those who pray, do more for the world than those
who fight ; and if it is true that the world is going from
bad to worse, it is because there are more battles than
prayers. If we could penetrate the secrets of God, and
those of the history of mankind, I am certain that we
should be x seized with admiration at the wonderful
effects of prayer, even in human things. If society is
to be at rest, there must be a certain equilibrium,
known to God alone, between prayer and action,
between the contemplative and the active life. I
believe, so strong are my convictions on this point,
that if a day should ever come, or even one single hour,
during which no prayer should ascend from earth to
Heaven, that day and. hour would be the last day and
the last hour of the world." 2

1 Comparatio regis et monachi, ch. iv.
-' Donoso Cortes, vol. ii. p. 124.

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH. 113

NOTE TO BOOK I. CHAPTER XI.

In the very unfavourable estimate of the religious
side of Henry II. 's character which has been formed
by Bishop Stubbs, it seems to me that the distinguished
historian has been hardly just to the many redeeming
features for which we have good evidence in the Magna
Vita, and other sources. In Bishop Stubbs' view : " He
had little regard for more than the merest forms of
religion; like Napoleon Bonaparte, he heard Mass daily,
but without paying decent attention to the ceremony.
During the most solemn part of the service, he was
whispering to his courtiers, or scribbling, or looking at
pictures. 1 His vows to God, he seems to have thought,
might be evaded as easily as his covenants with men ;
his undertaking to go on the Crusade was commuted
for money payments, 2 and his promised religious foun-
dations were carried out at the expense of others. His
regard for personal morality was of much the same
value and extent. He was at no period of his life a
faithful husband ; and when he had finally quarrelled
with Eleanor, he sank into sad depths of licentious-
ness."

Now the fact is, that nearly all these details rest
upon the evidence of Ralph Niger, and upon the
De Institutione Pnncipum of Giraldus Cambrensis. 3 That
these two writers are flagrantly unfair to Henry in
their account of the three monasteries he had promised
to found, we have already seen, 4 and it seems extremely

1 " This may be a libel of Ralph Niger," adds Bishop Stubbs, in a note,
" but it is graphic enough to be true."

2 Henry II. never entirely laid aside the idea of the Crusade, and it is
impossible to doubt the sincerity of the plans which he formed to go to
Palestine with his son Richard and the King of France, only a year before
his death.

3 De Institutione Principum, Rolls Series, p. 304.

4 See note to chapter viii. p. 83.

I

H4 CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH.

probable that their presentment of other incidents in
his career is not more trustworthy. Giraldus implies,
for instance, that he died without the sacraments, but
Roger Hoveden, 1 whose authority is accepted by such
writers as Miss Kate Norgate, and Bishop Stubbs him-
self, states explicitly, that just before his death he had
himself carried into the chapel of the Castle of Chinon,
and there, before the altar, "received devoutly the
Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord, con-
fessing his sins, and absolved by the bishops and the
clergy." When we remember, therefore, the real friend-
ship which subsisted between the King and the holy
Bishop of Lincoln, and make allowances for the violent
storms of passion to which the former was subject,
there seems little room for doubt that the efforts to
make his peace with God, of which so many are
recorded in his life, were thoroughly sincere. No one,
it seems to me, has better summed up this side of
Henry's character than Mrs. J. R. Green, in her little
monograph in the Twelve English Statesmen Series. " To
the last," she says, " Henry looked on the clergy as his
best advisers and supporters. He never demanded
tribute from churches or monasteries, a monkish his-
torian tells us, as other princes were wont to do, on
the plea of necessity ; with religious care, he preserved
them from unjust burthens and public exactions. By
frequent acts of devotion, he sought to win the favour
of Heaven, or to rouse the religious sympathies of
England on his behalf. In April, 1177, he met at
Canterbury his old enemy the Archbishop of Rheims,
and laid on the shrine of St. Thomas a charter of
privileges for the convent. On the ist of May, he
visited the shrine of St. Edmund, and the next day
that of St. Etheldreda at Ely. ... A Templar was
chosen to be his almoner, that he might carry to the

1 Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 367.

CONFIDENCE OF HENRY II. IN ST. HUGH. 115

King the complaints of the poor, which could not come
to his own ears, and distribute among the needy a tenth
of all the food and drink that came into the house of
the King. . . . Behind Henry's darkest and sternest
moods lay a nature quick in passionate emotion, singu-
larly sensitive to affection, tender, full of generous
impulse, clinging to those he loved with yearning
fidelity and long patience." 1 Even in his attempt to
carry through the too famous Constitutions of Clarendon,
the writer last quoted seems right in saying* 'that he
had no desire to quarrel with the Church or priest-
hood." No doubt several of the provisions of that
enactment were distinct encroachments upon the privi-
leges of the Church, but it may be questioned if the
precise point at issue in the most famous of the Con-
stitutions of Clarendon has always been clearly appre-
hended either by the opponents or the friends of King
Henry. Professor Maitland 2 seems to have studied
the question very carefully and impartially, and he
considers that Henry never intended to require what
Stubbs imputes to him, viz., " that clerical criminals
should be tried in the ordinary courts of the country." 3
The discussion of the nature of Henry's schemes does
not, however, belong to this place, and as to the
general drift of his legislation regarding the clergy,
Bishop Stubbs' remark seems still to hold good.
" When we find that in this cause all the piety and
wisdom of .three centuries saw the championship of
the Divine truth and justice against secular usurpation,
we are not surely wrong in supposing that the Consti-
tutions of Clarendon were dated three centuries too
soon." 4 [ED.]

1 Henry II., by Mrs. J. R. Green, pp. 195 197.

3 History of English Law, vol. i. p. 430 seq. ; and English Historical
Review, vol. vii. p. 224.

3 Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i. p. 501,
* Preface to Benedict, vol. ii. p. 24.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PRIOR OF WITH AM IN HIS MONASTERY.

WHILE he was thus rendering service to the King of
England, St. Hugh did not neglect his own monastery.
Now that the material edifice was completed, thanks to
his courage and activity, he lost no time in building up
the spiritual edifice of a perfect religious life, keeping
closely to the model of the Grande Chartreuse itself.
His great care was to see that the Rule was strictly
observed, and to this he contributed not less by example
than by precept. Faithfully to do the will of God from
one moment to the other, and to look upon the Rule as
a revelation of His will ; to neglect no one of its most
minute requirements, however unimportant it might
seem to be ; and to persevere day after day in this
blind and simple obedience : this was the religious
spirit which the holy Prior strove to impress upon the
monks under his guidance. And to him this life of
perfect regularity had become such a habit, that it was
almost a second nature. So much so, that as soon as
he lay down to rest at the appointed hour, he went
to sleep immediately ; and if he were awakened out of
the proper time, either he got up and gave himself to
prayer, or he at once dropped off to sleep again without
an effort. It is true that his short rest was well earned,
and, moreover, it might have been said of him, with
the bride in the Canticles : " I sleep, and my heart
watcheth." 1 Those who approached him during his

i Cant. v. 2.

IN HIS MONASTERY.

hours of slumber, often heard him repeat the words,
Amen, amen. This word, the only one that ever escaped
him during sleep, was like the conclusion of the un-
interrupted prayer of his waking hours. In it also we
may discern the habitual disposition of his soul, ready
to say Amen to every manifestation of the Divine will,
and always full of that living and strong faith, of which
the Amen is a solemn affirmation. It pleased God also
to reveal His secrets to His servant in dreams, of
which in after-days he used sometimes to speak to his
biographer. " When he told me these things," says
the pious historian, " I thought that to this man of
God might well be applied the words of the Divine
Office, which he himself always sang with great fervour :

Exuta sensu lubrico

Te cordis alta somnient ! l

It is not astonishing that during his sleep he enjoyed
this spiritual serenity, these clear intuitions, and this
holy sweetness ; he who, when awake, never allowed
his imagination to be led captive by vanity, or curiosity,
or sensuality." 2

His days were passed in prayer, in meditation, in
spiritual reading, and in the care of those committed to
his charge. On Sundays and feast-days, when he went
to the refectory in obedience to the Rule, he behaved
as he taught his Religious to do : " His eyes were upon
the table, his hands upon his food, his ears upon the
reading, and his heart was upon God." 3 When he
took his meals alone in his cell, he always had a book
open before him on the table. It was the Word of God
which gave a relish to those austere repasts, which
often consisted of nothing but bread and water.

1 " O my God, grant that, delivered from dangerous imaginations, the
depths of our hearts may dream only of Thee." (Carthusian Breviary,
Hymn for Sunday Vespers.)

8 Magna Vila, bk. ii. ch. ix. 3 Ibid.

li8 IN HIS MONASTERY.

No one ever had more esteem and love for books
than he had. He wished that his monastery might
in this resemble the Grande Chartreuse, and might
possess a rich library in the midst of its poverty.
He therefore endeavoured to accomplish this end by
the purchase or transcription of numerous manuscripts.
Nothing seemed to him more necessary for diffusing
throughout the cloister an atmosphere of edification
and piety. " When we are at peace," he said, " books
are our treasures and delights ; when we are fighting,
they are our arms ; when we are hungry, they are our
food ; when we are sick, they are our remedy. This is
a resource which no Order of religious men can afford
to neglect ; but those who need it most of all, are the
monks who live in solitude." 1

A somewhat curious episode may serve to illustrate
this great love which he had for books ; while it will
show us also how he preferred the exercise of fraternal
charity above all else.

One day, when he was in familiar conversation with
the King, he was speaking of the poverty of his library.
"You must find copyists," said the Prince, "to tran-
scribe the books you require." " But I have no
parchment," said the Prior. " How much money will
purchase the quantity you need ? " continued the
Prince. "A silver mark," replied St. Hugh, "will
keep us supplied for a long time to come." The King
smiled. " How grasping you are ! " he said. And then
he ordered that ten marks should immediately be given
to the Brother who was in attendance on the Prior of
Witham. Moreover, he promised to present the
monastery with a Bible which should contain the
whole of the Old and New Testaments. He did not
forget this promise, and made inquiries as to where
such a Bible could be found. He was told that the

1 Magna Vita, bk. ii. ch. xiii.

IN HIS 'MONASTERY. 1 19

monks of St. Swithun, at Winchester, had just com-
pleted a very beautiful Bible, which was intended for
their refectory. The King immediately sent for the
Prior of St. Swithun, and induced him, not without
holding out hopes of ample compensation, to part with
this masterpiece of caligraphy. The present thus made
to the King was at once transferred by him to Witham.
St. Hugh and his monks, who were quite ignorant of
whence it came, rejoiced greatly over their beautiful
new treasure. They admired the elegant writing of the
copyist, and the intelligent revision of the corrector,
both of whom had spared no pains to secure an easily
legible and accurate text.

A short time afterwards, one of the monks from
Winchester came to Witham on a friendly visit.
According to his custom, St. Hugh received the visitor
with great affability, and, in the course of conversation,
spoke of the magnificent Bible w T hich, by the King's
generosity, had lately come into possession of the
Carthusians. " We are delighted," said the visitor,
44 to think that it is your monastery which has received
our book. We hope it gives you satisfaction in every
way ! If it is not arranged according to the usage of
your Order, we shall be happy to make you another
copy in accordance with your instructions." Filled
with astonishment, the holy Prior replied : " Is it
possible that our lord the King can thus have deprived
your house of a work so carefully executed for your
own use ? Believe me, my dear Brother, your Bible
shall be restored to you at once. I beg of you to
present our excuses to your community, and ask for-
giveness for the wrong we have done them, although
it was quite without our knowledge." On this the
monk of St. Swithun's took fright, and implored
St. Hugh not to carry out his design, as the monastery
at Winchester might lose the King's favour, if the

j 20 IN HIS MONASTERY.

affair came to the royal ears. He assured St. Hugh
that all his brothers in Religion were delighted at what
had happened. " Well, then ! " concluded St. Hugh,
" to make their joy a lasting joy, we must all keep
secret the restitution I am determined to make of their
precious treasure. Take your Bible with you, if you do
not want me to send it back again to the donor who
sent it here. Carry it away at once, and be quite sure
that the King shall never know a word about the
matter." The Bible therefore returned to its first
possessors, who received it as a present from the Prior
of Witham : and if they were overjoyed to recover their
beautiful manuscript, they were still more charmed
with the gracious charity which had shown so much
consideration for their disappointment.

From that day forth the most affectionate relations
were established between the monks of St. Swithun
and those of Witham. Later on, two Religious from
Winchester entered the English Charterhouse, and
became excellent Carthusians : one of them was Robert,
Prior of the Cathedral ; the other Ralph, the sacristan, 1
who related to the biographer of St. Hugh the fact of
which we have just been speaking.

These were not the only recruits who were attracted
to Witham by the man of God. His reputation for
kindness and sanctity soon spread throughout England,
and many distinguished visitors came to Witham, seek-
ing the advice and consolation which never disappointed

1 It does not seem to me that the expressions used in the Magna Vita
justify the inference that Ralph, the sacrist, also became a Carthusian.
Of Robert the Prior we learn something from Richard of Devizes, himself
a monk of St. Swithun's, who paid a visit to Witham to see his former
Superior, and to find out " how much nearer to Heaven was a cell in the
Charterhouse than the cloister of Winchester." He tells us that he had
even had a thought of staying at Witham himself, but his tone nevertheless
is rather acrid, and he mentions another distinguished man, Walter, Prior
of I'.ath, who had joined the Carthusians and had left them again. (Richard
of Devizes, Gtita Richardi, p. 26 and Prologue.) [ED.]

IN HIS MONASTERY. 121

them. Among them, were men of learning, possessing
rich benefices, who were so captivated by the sight of
his virtues, that they bade farewell to all that the
world had to offer, in order to become humble disciples
in this school of self-renunciation.

On his part, St. Hugh, always prudent and circum-
spect, was not inclined to open the doors of the cloister
too easily. He examined carefully into the motives
which were actuating his postulants, and could on
occasion be stern as well as gentle. But when he
had really tested a vocation, and was satisfied of its
genuineness, he was always rejoiced to receive a new
son into the Order he loved so tenderly. It was then
that the time of his solicitude began. The holy Prior
was not content with guiding the first steps of his
novices; he followed them in every stage of their
religious life, never ceasing to stimulate their efforts,
as far as discretion allowed. The greater number
repaid his fatherly care; but we must confess that
there were some sad exceptions to this rule, and
there were especially two of these new recruits on
whose account St. Hugh had to suffer cruelly.

Is it necessary to remark here that it would be folly
to impute to a whole Religious Order the faults of some
of its individual members ? If the Order founded by
St. Bruno has never needed reform, the same cannot
be said of every Carthusian. On the contrary, it is
because the weak and unfruitful branches have been
carefully pruned and extirpated, that the tree itself has
continued to flourish in all its pristine strength and
beauty.

Moreover, while St. Hugh had not to deplore the
more grievous scandals which sometimes occurred in
other monasteries, he had too often to contend with
that elusive but none the less inveterate infirmity of
the soul which we may describe as want of perseverance.

7,V HIS MONASTERY.

The two monks who were attacked by this malady,
Andrew, formerly sacristan of the Monastery of
Muchelney, and Alexander, a former secular canon
of Lewes, were both men of good reputation, and had
made considerable sacrifices to enter the Carthusian
Order. But they began to regret the step they had
taken, and to lose all relish for their solitary life. They
complained to the holy Prior, and murmured against
him and against the Order he represented. Andrew
was not so violent ; but the ex-canon, proud of his
learning and secular knowledge, gave free vent to his
indignation. He accused the man of God of having
deceitfully entrapped him into remaining in so severe
a solitude, where he was deprived of all human con-
solation, and compelled to live without the society even
of his brothers in Religion. St. Hugh endeavoured,
with inexhaustible patience and gentleness, to calm
these unquiet spirits, and to point out to them the
advantages and excellence of their way of life. But he
had the grief of seeing them turn a deaf ear to all his
exhortations, and he found himself powerless to prevent
the catastrophe he dreaded. The two monks had made
up their minds to leave the monastery. Their intention
was soon known to their brothers in Religion, and even
to persons outside. It was a great trial for the whole
community, and a scandal especially for those who had
recently embraced the religious life. St. Hugh was
deeply grieved : his heart was torn with anguish to see
the peace of his monastery threatened, and the per-
severance of his other monks thus sorely imperilled.

Some little consolation he must doubtless have felt
from the action of one at that time much respected for
his learning and virtue, the well-known writer, Peter of
Blois, Archdeacon of Bath. This distinguished man
had formerly studied law with the monk Alexander,
and he now addressed a long letter to his old fellow-

IN HIS MONASTERY. 123

student, in which he endeavoured to dissuade him from
his deplorable project. Peter wrote eloquently in praise
of the Carthusian Order, expressing the most profound
admiration for its sanctity, and he ended by reproach-
ing his old friend for his ingratitude to the Prior of
Witham, whose charity and patience he had abused,
and whose heart he had filled with sorrow. 1

St. Hugh had hoped for good results from this
letter, but it had no effect upon the obstinate resolution
of the ex-canon of Lewes. Its eloquence was wasted
upon him ; his determination was fixed, and nothing
could shake it. While Andrew, his companion in
rebellion, returned to his former monastery, Alexander
entered the Abbey of Reading, which belonged to the
monks of Cluny. He was at once taken into favour
by the Abbot, who, on account of his reputation for
learning, admitted him to his table and to close inti-
macy. But the Abbot being afterwards recalled to
Cluny, to govern the monastery there, and Alexander
thus seeing himself deserted and friendless, began to
repent bitterly of his conduct in leaving Witham. He
addressed himself to St. Hugh, who was then Bishop
of Lincoln, and implored him to allow of his being
received again as a Carthusian. But the man of God
firmly refused his consent to a step which would have
been quite contrary to the principles which guided him
in all such matters.

In the idea of St. Hugh, the Carthusians, more than
any other Order, were bound to be on their guard

against these inconstant straws, as he called those who by
i

1 Peter of Blois, Ep. 86. We learn from this letter that the excuse
Alexander gave for quitting the Carthusians was that the Rule did not
permit him to say Mass every day. Peter of Blois urges in reply that this
is a mere pretext, because Superiors, presumably St Hugh, to prevent the
scandal of such a desertion, had given Alexander permission to celebrate
daily if he wished. A century or so later a similar permission was accorded,
to all Carthusian priests. [Eo.]

i .-4 /*V HIS MONASTERY.

the least wind of temptation could be blown away from
the good grain, that is to say, from the society of their
faithful brethren. Such characters, he said, are better
in other Orders, dedicated to a more active life, and
may perhaps there find a more easy way of salvation.
To keep the door of the Charterhouse rigorously closed
against these restless spirits is really to act for their
good ; for they are not fitted for the isolation of the
Carthusian Rule. On the other hand, it was an
immense service, he urged, to their own solitaries, to
preserve them from such elements of disquiet, which
could only bring distraction and disturbance into their
peaceful lives.

For these reasons, the Prior of Witham always
refused to receive again any monk or lay-brother who
had once left the Order. It was in vain for his best
friends, or for persons in the highest position, to
attempt to alter his decision in this matter ; their
prayers were of no avail. Nothing was so dear to
him as the peace of the souls confided to his care. The
cloister, without peace, may become a real Hell ; with
peace, it is the vestibule of Paradise.

St. Hugh had no other thought than that of shutting
himself up more resolutely in the solitude of his cell, to
prepare himself for the death which no longer seemed
far distant, when Providence called him to enter upon
an entirely new career in which his sanctity was to
make itself manifest to the world. The vital seeds of
benediction, which had germinated during the long
years of solitude, were now to push their shoots into
broad daylight, and produce a magnificent harvest.

BOOK II.

THE FIRST YEARS OF EPISCOPACY.
11861189.

CHAPTER I.

ST. HUGH IS APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN.
1186.

AMONG the bishoprics which had suffered most from
the abuse of kingly power, which St. Hugh had always
condemned, was that of Lincoln, one of the largest and
most densely populated in England. The attention of
St. Thomas of Canterbury had already been drawn to
the sad state of things in this diocese, which had
been left vacant ever since the death of the last
Bishop, Robert of Chesney, in 1167; and in one of
his letters the great Archbishop had spoken strongly
of this very long vacancy. 1 In 1173, that is to say,
after six years had elapsed since the death of the last
Bishop, King Henry II. had appointed a successor;
but it was only his illegitimate son Geoffrey, who was
a soldier, not at all fitted for the ecclesiastical life, and
who in fact did not receive episcopal consecration
until after the death of his father, when he was made
Archbishop of York. We can easily understand that
the diocese was no better off for such a nomination as
this. It was necessary for the Pope to interfere in
1181, and insist upon Geoffrey receiving Holy Orders,
or else resigning his see. He chose the latter alter-
native ; upon which Walter of Coutances was con-
secrated Bishop of Lincoln in July, 1183; but in less
than two years, in February, 1185, he was translated
* St. Thomas of Canterbury, Letters, vol. i. p. 120. Edit. J. A. Giles,

123 APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

to the archiepiscopal see of Rouen, which had become
vacant on the death of Archbishop Rotrou. 1 Thus,
with the exception of this short interval, the Church in
Lincoln had sustained a widowhood of nearly eighteen
years, which was happily ended at last by the nomi-
nation of St. Hugh.

In the month of May, 1186, Henry II. assembled
together at the Abbey of Eynsham, a number of Bishops
and English nobles, when, for eight consecutive days,
deliberations were held regarding the affairs of the
kingdom. Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, with
several other Bishops, lodged at the Abbey, the King
rode in each day from his palace of Woodstock, only
a few miles distant. Amongst the topics discussed by
this assembly there was question of the filling up of
more than one vacant bishopric. The Canons of
Lincoln were summoned to meet the King, and bidden
to hold an election. Nowithstanding the presence of
Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, and many other
ecclesiastics of high rank, the election was to be con-
ducted according to one of the most objectionable
articles of the Constitutions of Clarendon, which runs
thus: "When it is necessary to appoint a Bishop to
the vacant see, the King shall summon the chief
personages 2 belonging to that see, and the election shall
take place in the King's chapel, with his consent, and
with the counsel of those personages of the kingdom
whom he shall call to him for the purpose."

1 See the Chronicle of Rouen in Labbe, Dibliotheca Nova, vol. i. p. 369 ;
Martene, Antcdota. voL iii. ; R. de Diceto, pp. 615, 692, 726.

2 It is hard to say whether the word persona here is, or is not, used in
any technical sense. Obviously the signification in which the word was
employed by Chaucer, and which still survives in the term "parson," is
excluded by the circumstances of the case. Yet it bore this meaning even
in St. Hugh's time, for we read in a document emanating from him of

/. persona, presbyteri" deans, parish priests, and curates." But

s this, the word persona seems to have been specially applied to

certain members of the cathedral chapters. (Cf. Register of St. Osmund,

APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 129

There were plenty of candidates for the bishopric
of Lincoln. Several of the Canons of the diocese were
men of high rank, either members of the King's Privy
Council, or holding office in the palace. They enjoyed
great consideration on account of their learning, and
also, it must be said, on account of their wealth.
Although a bishopric might not have made them any
richer, they would probably not have needed very
much pressing to consent to wear a mitre. But God
had already chosen His own candidate, and He had
disposed the heart of the King in his favour ; for the
King was now really in earnest in wishing to repair
the evils caused by the long vacancy at Lincoln as
soon as possible. The person upon whom his choice
had so providentially fallen was no other than the holy
Prior of Witham. The Archbishop of Canterbury
cordially agreed with the King upon this point. So
also did Reginald, Bishop of Bath, the envoy who had
formerly brought Hugh from the Grande Chartreuse,
and who, as a near neighbour to Witham, had long been
a witness of his virtue and ability.

The Canons duly proceeded to an election, but they
could not come to an agreement, on account of the
interested views of some of their number. It was then
that the Prior of Witham was proposed. His repu-
tation for sanctity, prudence, and learning was known
to them all. No one, they were told, was more worthy
of the bishopric and of their votes. This proposition
caused great agitation in the souls of those who were
seeking their own interest, rather than the interests
of God and His Church. They made objections to this
nomination on the plea that Hugh was ignorant of the

Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 2.) So at Lincoln: " Noveritis etiam in ecclesia
nostra quatuor esse personatus et totidem personas excellentes inter quas
primum locum habet decanus, secundum cantor, tertium cancellarius,
quartum thesaurarius. " (Wilkins, Concilia, vol. i. p. 533.) [ED.]

J

130 APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

language and customs of the country, and that his
solitary life had not been a good preparation for the
care of a large diocese. But their objections were
easily overruled, and before long they came to think
that no better candidate could be found than the man
whom they were opposing. The Prior of Witham was
therefore unanimously elected Bishop of Lincoln, to the
satisfaction of the King and his courtiers. The Arch-
bishop of Canterbury confirmed the election, and
hastened to send notice of it to the holy Prior, who,
in the retirement of his cell, knew nothing of what was
passing. 1

A deputation from the electors arrived at Witham,
bearing letters from the King and the Archbishop, and
informed St. Hugh of what had taken place at Eynsham.
Without betraying any emotion, the Prior opened the
letters and read the pressing summons to set out at
once to join the King and the Primate, in order that a
day might be fixed for his consecration.

For any one less disinterested than the Prior of
Witham the prospect could hardly have been without
its fascinations. But upon St. Hugh the proffered
bishopric seems to have made no impression whatever.
He may no doubt have recalled to mind the prophecy
of the old Carthusian monk, whose last illness he had
consoled; but if he did, he took a resolution at all
events to defer the fulfilment of that prophecy as long
as ever it was possible.

His reply was worthy of a son of St. Bruno, who
remembered how that holy man had fled to the desert
to escape from ecclesiastical honours. " I can under-
stand," he wrote to the Canons of Lincoln, " why my
lord the King and my lord the Archbishop wished to
confer this honour upon me, of which I am most un-

Vita, bk. iii. ch. i. Cf. Godwin, De Prcssulibus Anglice,
p. 345 ; Ralph de Diceto, p. 631 ; Roger Hoveden, p. 63.

APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 131

worthy. It is natural for the King to desire in this way
to show his esteem for the humble monk whom he has
brought here from a far country; and the Archbishop,
too, would no doubt be glad to see amongst his col-
leagues on the episcopal bench more of those who,
like himself, have once worn a monastic garb. 1 But
you, my friends, and the other electors, must not
be guided by these desires on the part of your Supe-
riors. To you alone belongs the right of freely
electing the pastor under whose guidance you are to
live. And besides, the regular election of a Bishop
ought to take place, not in the palace of the King, or
even in a council of Bishops summoned by him, but in
the chapter-house of the Cathedral of the diocese.
There can indeed be no just reason for acting otherwise,
unless there be an open schism or some other com-
plication of equal gravity. Now let me express my
humble opinion upon what has passed. I consider
the election just held to be null and void. You must
return to your church, and there, with the blessing of
God, hold another election, after having invoked the
aid of the Holy Spirit. Do not consult the will of the
King, or of the Archbishop, or of any other human
being ; but seek to do the will of God alone. I can
say no more. May the Angel of the Lord accompany
you on your return to Lincoln."

The Canons were edified but not satisfied with this
reply. However, as all their eloquence could obtain
no other, they returned quickly to those who had sent
them, and there the report which they gave of the
Prior's answer and bearing excited general admiration.

1 Baldwin was a Cistercian, and had been Abbot of Ford, in Devon-
shire. At this time also there were in the English Episcopate, Gilbert
Foliot, Bishop of London, who had been Abbot of Gloucester ; William
Saltmarsh, Bishop of Llandaff, formerly Prior of the Augustinians at
Bristol ; and Peter de Leia, Bishop of St. David's, a Cluniac monk from
Wenlock.

APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN

If any had previously cherished a prejudice against
the foreign monk proposed to them, that prejudice
was now removed, and when, in accordance with the
directions of the Saint, a new and more canonical
election took place, St. Hugh was again chosen unani-
mously.

Another deputation at once set out for the Monastery
of Witham, and this time no objections could be made
on the ground of irregularity ; for they carried letters
from the Chapter acquainting the Prior with his election
according to all canonical rules, and begging him to
accept the appointment. Hugh listened quietly to all
they had to say ; again calmly read the letters they
brought him ; and again refused. This time he based
his refusal on other arguments. He said that it was
a wonder to him that they could persist in asking a
recluse like himself to leave his beloved solitude to
undertake such a charge, and that for his own part it
was out of his power to comply with their request.
As a monk he was bound by his vow of obedience, and
since the General of his Order had made him Prior of
Witham, he could be relieved of that office by no other
authority but that which had placed him there.

The deputies were obliged to return again without
a favourable answer ; but on hearing of this new
objection, the Canons of Lincoln at once sent several
of their most influential members on a mission to the
Grande Chartreuse, supported by strong representations
from the King and the Primate, there to beg the
General of the Order to lay his commands upon
St. Hugh, and thus compel him to accept the dignity
offered to him.

Dom Jancelyn then governed the Carthusian Order.
He had been acquainted with St. Hugh before his
departure for England, and had seen him more than
once since, when the Prior of Witham attended the

APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 133

General Chapters. 1 He was not ignorant of the rare
abilities and merits of the Saint, and of his fitness for
the position which was proposed to him. He knew
also with what favour King Henry regarded the holy
Carthusian, and the great good which would be the
result of his appointment. Therefore the General con-
sented to make the sacrifice of one of his most cherished
sons. It was a sacrifice not without precedent, for the
Order of St. Bruno had already given way in several
instances when a diocese had earnestly solicited to
have some particular Carthusian for their Bishop. For
more than a century (i.e., from 1132 to 1248) every
Bishop of the see of Grenoble was a Carthusian ; and
before the date of St. Hugh's death, one Cardinal and
thirty-two Bishops or Archbishops had been drawn
from the same retreat.

These prelates did not cease to live as Carthusian
monks, in so far as their new duties allowed ; and they
always preserved their love for the Order, aiding thus
in many ways to propagate it and establish new founda-
tions.

We can understand, therefore, that the English
Canons were much more successful at the Grande
Chartreuse than they had been at Witham. They
were received with great respect, and very soon
obtained the favour they desired. This was a
formal command addressed to Hugh, by his General
and brothers in Religion, bidding him obey at once
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the King, and
accept the proffered dignity as the yoke of the Lord.
The deputies hastened back to England and presented
this ultimatum to their elected Bishop, who, on this
occasion, could only resign himself to the will of God
and begin to prepare as fervently as might be for
episcopal consecration.

i Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. xiv.

134 APPOINTED BISHOP OF LINCOLN.

The reluctance of our Saint to accept the dignity of
the episcopate contrasted favourably with the eagerness
with which some of his contemporaries sought after the
like honours, and it inspires his biographer with a burst
of admiration. " What a lesson," he exclaims, " for
those who seek for ecclesiastical dignities at any price,
and care not by what tortuous ways they reach the
summit of their desires ! Ah ! Let them consider if
their merits are greater than those of this holy man
if their virtue is more perfect, or their minds more
adorned with divine learning ! He was well versed in
the holy art of avoiding sin and curing the sins of
others ; he had mastered to perfection the doctrine of
salvation ; yet, in his humility, he applied to himself
those words of the Prophet Jeremias : ' I am not a
physician ; I have no bread in my house ; take care
not to make me a prince over the people.' But the
more he considered his own nothingness and weakness,
the more did he merit to receive the fulness of the
Spirit of God." l

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. iv.

CHAPTER II.

CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT.

1186.

THE Divine Pontiff, after the order of Melchisedech,
had Himself prepared His servant for the episcopal con-
secration. The noble birth of St. Hugh, and the faith
and piety of the family from which he sprang, had given
him that elevation of thought and that innate dignity
which ought to characterize a Prince of the Church.
His early retirement from the world, and his holy and
hidden life at Villard-Benoit, had preserved him from
all the dangers which might have been a snare to his
innocence, and had formed a fitting preparation for the
priesthood. His after life in his Carthusian cell had
continued that work of preparation, not by wasting or
paralyzing the talents committed to him, but by ferti-
lizing and increasing them. There also he had made
rapid strides in the path of perfection, so necessary for
those who are to rule and guide others. Finally, he
had been tried by many temptations, he had been called
upon to sacrifice the peace of his solitude at the Grande
Chartreuse, and to assume the cares and responsibilities
of superiorship at Witham. All this was again a pre-
paration for the opposition and ill-feeling he was to
encounter as Bishop of Lincoln.

In looking back upon the past, St. Hugh could not
fail to see how the hand of God had been leading him
on to this important change in his life ; nevertheless,
he took immense pains also to prepare himself worthily

i 3 C CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT.

for it. " During the time," says his biographer, " that
the deputies were coming and going at Witham, Hugh
was far from remaining idle. With all the energy he
was capable of, he strove to make daily progress in
compunction for past sins, and in that purity of heart
which comes from incessant prayer. His preparation
did not consist in getting ready magnificent vestments,
or vessels for the service of the altar, but in disposing
his soul for temptation. At the thought of the im-
pending change in his life, he felt like the sailor at the
approach of tempest, or the soldier, when the signal
for battle is given. . . . And when the final deputation
arrived, with the command from his Superior, and he
could no longer refuse to obey, he quitted his beloved
solitude in sorrow and fear, commending himself humbly
to the prayers of his heart-broken community." l

When the day of departure came, a troop of
horsemen, mounted on magnificent animals, richly
caparisoned, issued from the gates of Witham and took
the road to London. Only one of their number showed
no sign of ostentation in the equipment of his horse,
and he carried at his saddle-bow in front of him a
singular-looking bundle. This man, who might have
been taken for a servant, was nevertheless the lord and
chief of the party none other than the Bishop-
elect of Lincoln, riding in the midst of his Canons.
At the moment of his elevation in dignity, he would
not abandon the humility of his former life, and he
endeavoured to practise the counsel of the Wise Man :
" The greater thou art, the more humble thyself in all
things." 2 Therefore he was distinguished from the rest
of the brilliant cavalcade, only by the simplicity of his
attire, and he was not ashamed to carry himself the
bundle of sheepskins used for their bedding by the
Carthusians of that time. It was in vain for his

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. iv, 2 Eccles. iii. 20,

CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT. 137

travelling companions to try to relieve him of his
burden. He cared neither for their protests nor their
raillery, being determined to make no change in his
monastic habits until after his consecration.

As they drew near to Winchester, their embarrass-
ment increased, on hearing that several members of the
royal family and a crowd of people were coming to
meet the newly-elected Bishop. One of the chaplains
in attendance could stand it no longer. He drew a
knife and secretly cut the strap which secured these
troublesome sheepskins the holy Carthusian being so
absorbed in prayer and meditation that he never per-
ceived his loss.

Before his consecration, he was summoned to join
the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the
Council of Marlborough, which opened on the I4th of
September. 1 Henry welcomed him with great joy, and
lavished gifts upon him with truly royal munificence.
He presented him with a quantity of gold and silver
plate, he supplied the equipment which he needed for
his household, and he expressed a wish to defray the
greater part of the expense of his episcopal consecration.

That imposing ceremony finally took place in St.
Catherine's Chapel, Westminster, on the feast of
St. Matthew, September 21, n86. 2 It was Baldwin,
Archbishop of Canterbury, a monk and successor of
the Italian monk, St. Augustine, who anointed the new
Bishop within the precincts of that famous Abbey,
where the Kings of England are crowned, and where
rests the body of St. Edward the Confessor. William
of Northall was consecrated Bishop of Worcester at
the same time. The pontifical insignia of St. Hugh,
by his own wish, were of the simplest kind, and with as
little ornament as possible, from the mitre to the sandals.
It was his humility which dictated this choice, and he
1 Benedict, Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 352. 2 Ibid. p. 353.

138 CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT.

desired that these simple vestments should clothe his
dead body on the day of his burial. Thus, in the
midst of all the grandeur of his new position, it was the
thought of death which was uppermost in his mind.

\Yhatever progress he had hitherto made in per-
fection, a new transformation was seen in him from
the time of his episcopal consecration. He received
the imposition of hands with the firm determination of
becoming a true apostle. When the holy oil flowed
over his head and his hands, his heart also was inun-
dated with that divine charity which made him the real
Father of his flock. When he received the crozier,
he felt strong to carry it in defence of God's Church
and to make the sceptres of the proudest kings bow
before it, if need should arise. When the pastoral ring
was put upon his finger, he conceived a tender and
unchanging love for the Church of Christ, with whom
he thus contracted an alliance, in the name of the
Divine Spouse. When the mitre surmounted his brow,
he came to form a more exalted idea of the dignity of
the episcopate, and of the sublime virtues which should
be its crown. And thus, when, towards the end of the
ceremony, clothed in full pontifical robes, he turned
round to the people and gave his first episcopal bene-
diction, there might well have been applied to him,
even then, those words of Holy Scripture which are
now read in his honour in the Epistle of the Mass :
" Behold, a great priest, one who has pleased God, and
is found just in His sight. . . . God has raised him up,
to put him at the head of His people. ... He has
exalted him in the presence of kings, and has given him
a crown of glory." l

After his consecration, the new Bishop of Lincoln
lost no time in repairing to his diocese, and being

1 At his consecration St. Hugh made a profession of obedience to
Archbishop Baldwin. It is printed in the Appendix. [ ED.]

CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT. 139

installed in his own Cathedral. It was the custom in
those days, that the newly-consecrated prelate, on the
evening before his solemn entry, should retire to the
Priory of St. Catherine, without the walls of Lincoln,
and there pass the night. 1 Hugh was glad of the
opportunity to prepare in silence and prayer for the
solemn entry upon his episcopal functions. He there-
fore prolonged his devotions even beyond the night
Office of Matins, until at length sleep overcame him in
spite of himself. Then it was that in a dream he heard
a heavenly voice speaking to him these words of the
Prophet : " Thou goest to save thy people, to save
them with the help of thy Christ." At this point the
holy Bishop awoke, but he was comforted by the
mysterious encouragement thus accorded to him by
Almighty God, remembering also, as he did, what is
said of the eternal triumph of the Blessed in the
context of the same passage.

When the day dawned, he set out barefoot for the
Cathedral, surrounded by the inhabitants of Lincoln,
who were eager to see and to call down blessings on
him who came to them in the name of the Lord. The
gentleness and paternal kindness which shone in the
countenance of their new Bishop gained all hearts.
Nevertheless, it was soon discovered that he was not
wanting in firmness when he saw it was necessary to
reform abuses. The first to experience this was the
Archdeacon of Canterbury, who had been deputed
by the Primate to perform the ceremony of the enthron-
ization. He expected to receive a considerable present,
as was the custom of the time. 2 But when he asked

1 The Consuetudinarium, in the Lincoln registry, which is the authority
for this statement, is of later date. The example of St. Hugh probably
originated the custom ; for the Gilbertine priory of St. Catherine had only
been founded a few years before by Bishop Chesney. [ED.]

2 Antiquities of Canterbury. By Somner and Battely. The Third Council
of Lateran, however, had just forbidden the practice. See Apendix. [ED.]

I 4 o CONSECRATION AND ENTHRONEMENT.

for his honorarium, St. Hugh briefly replied : *' I will
give for the throne what I have given for the mitre ;
and no more." The Archdeacon, covered with con-
fusion, had to content himself with the honour of
having installed so upright a Bishop, thus receiving a
lesson by which we may hope that he profited.

Those who might have been tempted, under these
circumstances, to accuse our Saint of avarice or
parsimony, were witnesses on the same day of an
instance of his great natural liberality. Preparations
were being made for a great feast to all the inhabitants
on the occasion of their Bishop's solemn entry, and the
major-domo, whom Henry II. had himself chosen for
him, came in due course to ask for his master's orders.
The functionary suggested that on such occasions it
was usual to kill some of the deer in the park belonging
to the Cathedral, and added that it was for the Lord
Bishop to say how many deer should be killed. " Oh,"
said St. Hugh, " you may take three hundred ; and if
those are not sufficient, take as many more as are
necessary." The story of St. Hugh's simplicity came
to the ears of the King and his courtiers, who were
accustomed to be much more sparing of their venison.
They were prodigiously diverted at it, and the joke
was so often repeated that the " Bishop of Lincoln's
deer " passed into a proverb.

One other incident, more picturesque and more
remarkable, but not less authentic, is related of the
early days of the Saint's episcopate, and has ever since
been associated with his memory. We may surely be
pardoned for pointing out its full significance, and for
narrating it here with the details given by contem-
porary writers. We shall thus be able to explain the
impression it has left in popular tradition, and the
reason why in Christian art St. Hugh is usually repre-
sented with a swan at his feet.

CHAPTER III.

THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH.

IT is no slur upon the authenticity of the facts recorded
in the lives of the Saints to say that these lives are full
of poetry. There is no essential opposition between
poetry and history, and we may find many a beautiful
poem written by the grace of God in the actions of His
servants long before it is more or less imperfectly trans-
lated into words by the hand of man. Among such poems
there are none more lovely and graceful than those which
tell us of the relations of the inferior creatures with
certain chosen souls, to whom seems sometimes to have
been granted a share of the privileges of our first parents,
before the fall of man. Those who, when reading of
these things, feel nothing but indifference or contempt,
are much to be pitied ; and we may remind them of the
saying of Saint Cadoc, a Welsh monk and bard of
the sixth century : " No one is a true son of wisdom, if
he is not also a son of poetry." Indeed, we should be
depriving history of half its charm, if we were to
suppress without examination all facts which bear upon
them the stamp of the marvellous, and we should
simply prove ourselves incapable of appreciating that
Divine poetry the rules of which lie outside the ordi-
nary laws of nature. " We need not be astonished,"
wrote the Venerable Bede, when treating of St. Cuth-
bert's powers over the birds and beasts, "if he who
loyally and faithfully obeys the Creator of the universe,
sees creatures, in their turn, obey him." l
1 Life of St. Cuthbert, ch. xiii.

THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH.

This wonderful sympathy with the innocent creatures
of God has been a distinguishing trait of many of His
saints, especially of St. Francis of Assisi, who, at the
time of which we are now writing, was still in his
early childhood. 1 But it is not only St. Francis who
had this experience. The birds, which play such a
charming part in the story of his life, had shown the
same touching confidence, long before he came on
earth, towards other mortified ascetics. We remember
the raven which brought half a loaf every day to
St. Paul the Hermit, and which, when St. Anthony
came to visit him, did not fail to pro-vide a whole one.
Another raven, acting in a contrary manner, always
came to St. Benedict at Subiaco, to ask for a share of
his meals. To these facts, which are attested, the one
by St. Jerome, and the other by St. Gregory the Great,
we may add a third, which is told of St. Guthlac, an
English hermit, who died in the beginning of the eighth
century. The swallows used to come twittering around
him in crowds; they perched upon his shoulders and his
knees, upon his head and his breast. With his own hands,
the Saint helped them to build their nests under the
eaves of his cell, and year after year his loving little
guests came to take up their summer abode in the same
spot. " O my Father," said an astonished visitor,
** what have you done, to make these timid daughters
of solitude trust you so entirely?" "Do you not
know," replied the hermit, " that he who is united to
his God by purity of heart, finds all these sinless
creatures united to himself in like manner ? The birds
of heaven, like the angels of God, may safely associate
with those who have fled into the desert from the
society of their fellows." 2

Again, we may quote what is related by Sulpicius

1 He was born in 1182.
' 2 Life of St. Guthlac, Monks of the West, vol. v. p. 124.

THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH. 143

Severus of St. Martin of Tours. That holy Bishop of
the fourth century, when visiting his diocese, and
walking beside the banks of the Loire, followed by a
crowd of disciples, drew their attention to the water-
fowl called divers, which were swimming about on the
river, catching and swallowing the fish. " Look," said
the Saint, " there you have an exact picture of the
devil : that is how he lies in wait for careless souls ;
that is how he devours his victims, and yet is never
satisfied." And immediately afterwards he commanded
these water-birds to leave the river in which they were
swimming, and live henceforth in the desert. We can
imagine the astonishment of the crowd when, at the
sound of his voice, the birds obediently left the water,
and flew off in a body to the neighbouring uplands
and forests. 1

The holy Bishop of Lincoln, who had a great devo-
tion to St. Martin, was favoured with a like power,
although it was displayed in a different manner.

We have already seen at the Grande Chartreuse
how his gentleness attracted and tamed the birds and
the squirrels. At Witham he had a similar experience,
and for three years a bernacle-goose (burneta, or burneca)
fearlessly frequented the cell of the good Prior, and
eat from his hand. This bird never left him, except
when she was hatching her eggs, and when that was
over she reappeared, followed by all her brood. But
the remembrance of this faithful bird is almost effaced
by the still more wonderful behaviour of St. Hugh's
celebrated swan, of which we have now to speak.

The swan made its first appearance, either on the
very day of the Saint's enthronement, or the day after,
1 Sulpicius Severus, Epistles Hi., Monks of the West, vol. vi. ch. v.
M de Montalembert, from whom we have borrowed this incident, and who
relates also a number of others, equally wonderful, but not so well authen-
ticated, thinks that the name martins-pecheurs, given to diving-ducks, has
its origin in this occurrence.

1 4 4 THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH.

at a place called Stow, one of the episcopal manors,
situated about eight miles from the Cathedral City. It
was a very large and magnificent bird, " as much
bigger than other swans as a swan is bigger than a
goose," and its first proceeding was to exterminate as
many as it could of those of its own species who
were swimming about the lake when it took possession
of it. A short time afterwards, St. Hugh paid his first
visit to Stow, which was one of his episcopal resi-
dences, and it occurred to the people to make a present
of this noble bird to their Bishop. Instead of fiercely
resisting, as every one expected, the swan allowed
itself to be caught, and conducted to the Bishop's
room. St. Hugh offered it some bread, which the
bird eat from his hand ; and from that day, like the
tamest and gentlest of creatures, it constituted itself
the holy Bishop's inseparable companion, receiving his
caresses with evident pleasure, and taking no notice of
the numerous visitors who came and went. More than
this, it was sometimes seen to bury its head and its
long neck in the wide sleeves which St. Hugh wore, as
though it were plunging them in limpid water, giving
utterance all the time to cries of joy. When our Saint
left Stow, the swan went back to its lake, but three
or four days before the Bishop's return, by some mar-
vellous intuition, the bird knew what was going to
happen, and published it after its manner, beating the
water with its wings, and flying round and round with
joyous cries. Then leaving the lake, as if it would
rush to meet its master, it stalked up and down the
inner court, or even went so far as the gate. This
friendship the bird extended to no one else, and it
would even seek to protect St. Hugh against his visitors,
or against the chaplains in attendance, threatening
them with its beak and its wings.

One of the most esteemed writers of that period,

THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH. 145

Giraldus Cambrensis, was an eye-witness of these facts.
He spent several years at Lincoln during the time that
the Saint was Bishop there, and mentions the swan in
his work entitled, The Life of St. Remigiiis, 1 which was
written while St. Hugh was yet living. As a competent
observer, he carefully examined the creature, and from
his account it appears to correspond closely with the
description which naturalists give of the wild swan, or
whooper, a notable characteristic of which is that the
base of the beak shows no protuberance, and is deeply
tinged with yellow.

The chaplain of St. Hugh, who has incorporated
this testimony in his narrative, adds the following
details, derived from his own experience : " We can
all bear witness," he says, " that when the swan was
present it was impossible for any one to approach the
Bishop without being attacked by it. While its master
slept, it kept guard near the bed, and often caused us
great embarrassment. For if we had occasion to pass
anywhere near, the swan would raise its head threaten-
ingly, and come forward to bar the way. If we tried
to frighten it, or use force, it would utter the most
hideous cries, so that we were obliged to retire, for fear
of awakening the Bishop. Neither coaxing nor flattery,
if I may so speak, could induce it to modify the hostility
with which it regarded all the world in defence of the
supposed interests of its master.

" During the absence of the Bishop, the swan would
condescend to receive its food from the hand of the
bailiff: it would then come to the edge of the lake, but
as soon as it was satisfied it would sail off again into
the centre as far away as possible. When the Bishop
returned, the bailiff was treated like every one else,
and repulsed by the bird as though it had never seen
him before. But its master was never forgotten, how-

1 Chap. xxix.

K

M 6 THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH.

ever Ion?; his absence. On one occasion, when the
Bishop had passed nearly two years without coming to
Stow, the swan went to meet him with such speaking
demonstrations of joy, that no one could fail to under-
stand how impatiently it had been longing for his return.
All the servants of the house and the neighbours can
testify that it made known the Bishop's approach by
its behaviour and its cries at a time when no one else
was expecting him. It was curious to watch the bird's
excitement as St. Hugh and his attendants gradually
drew near. As soon as it heard its master's voice it
uttered a cry of joy and advanced with extended wings ;
it followed the Bishop into the inner court-yard, walked
upstairs after him, and entered his bed-chamber, where
it remained constantly unless it were driven out by
force. The Bishop fed it with his own hands, cutting
it a quantity of bread into convenient morsels of the
length and thickness of a finger. This practice con-
tinued more or less continuously for fifteen years. At
length, however, on one memorable day, the Bishop
arrived at Stow, but the swan did not come to meet
him. The bird remained melancholy and sad in the
middle of the lake, and for three days every effort to
catch it and bring it into the presence of its beloved
master was in vain. At the end of three days, it allowed
itself to be caught, but, to the amazement of all, it gave
no sign of joy at the sight of the Bishop. It stood with
its head hanging down, a picture of sorrow and dejection.
Six months afterwards the Bishop died, without ever
again visiting Stow. Then we understood that the
poor bird had wished to show its grief at bidding its
master a last farewell. Nevertheless, the swan itself
lived for some years longer." 1

The contemporaries of the holy Bishop did not
hesitate to recognize in these events the finger of God,

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. vii.

THE SWAN OF ST. HUGH. 147

who thus manifested the sanctity of His servant. The
feelings of that age find expression in the words of a
thirteenth-century poet, who wrote a short life of
St. Hugh in verse, and thus describes the friendship
of the swan for him :

Hsec avis, in vita candens, in funere cantans,
Sancti pontificis vitam mortemque figurat ;
Candens dum vivit, notat hunc vixisse pudicum ;
Cantans dum moritur, notat hunc decedere tutum.

Pure white when living, greeting death with song
Fit type, dear bird, of one thou lovedst long ;
The Saint, in life as pure as thy white breast
In death as fearless, lulled with a song to rest. 1

We can understand now why painters and sculptors,
who love to distinguish the saints by some special
emblem, have placed the swan by the side of St. Hugh.
No other inscription or device could so well express
the sanctity and purity of the Saint in his labours on
earth and the serenity of his death, as this graceful and
realistic symbol, taken in this case not from a mere
legend, but from authentic history.

1 Vita Metrica, v. 1132 1135. Although science contradicts the idea
here expressed of the song of the dying swan, yet we still speak of the last
effort or the last master-piece of a hero or a genius as the chant du cygne
the song of the swan.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

THE diocese of Lincoln was divided into eight arch-
deaconries, which extended over more than nine
counties, 1 and contained a numerous body of clergy,
the direction of whom was the first care of the holy
Bishop. Upon the sanctification of the priests really
depends the sanctification of the whole Christian people;
if the priesthood becomes as salt without savour, the
general corruption will soon be unbounded.

We have only to remember the long vacancy of the
see of Lincoln, to form some idea of the deplorable
state in which St. Hugh found his diocese, and of the
terrible abuses which too often dishonoured the ministry.
The necessary reforms could only be carried out by
filling the most important posts with prudent and
zealous coadjutors. Hugh spared no pains in endea-
vouring to secure such men, and in making them
participate in his views.

He had the happy thought of appealing to his
Primate, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
opening his heart to him : " You are too wise," he said,
" my reverend Father, not to understand how important

1 These counties were Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Huntingdon,
Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford, Leicester, and Hertford. The county of
Cambridge had only been detached at the beginning of the same century,
on the foundation of the see of Ely in 1109. This vast diocese thus
extended from the Humber to the Thames. It does not seem certain,
however, that there were more than seven archdeaconries at the beginning,
though there were certainly eight in the thirteenth century. f ED.]

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 149

it is for my own soul, for the Church over which I rule,
and also for yourself, that I should not be a useless
pastor. Thanks be to God, I have the will to do what
is right ; and it is for you to show me the means.
I have a special need to surround myself with wise
counsellors who will supply for my deficiencies. How
.can I discover and choose such counsellors, I, who am
a stranger in this country ? Your long experience must
come to my assistance, since you have not feared to lay
upon me the burden of the episcopate. Let me beg you
then to give me, as my fellow-workers, some of those
whom you have trained yourself by word and example."

The Primate was exceedingly edified and pleased
by this appeal. He admired the humility and self-
distrust of the Saint, his zeal for the reform of his
diocese, and the simplicity and delicacy with which
he insinuated his dependence upon his Metropolitan.
Two of the most distinguished and virtuous priests in
England were sent to St. Hugh, in answer to his request,
these were, Master Robert, of Bedford, and Master
Roger de Rolleston. The former did not long survive
to enjoy the confidence of his bishop, but the second
was still living, and was Dean of the Chapter of Lincoln,
when St. Hugh's biographer wrote. 1

Other ecclesiastics of similar merit were attracted
to the Saint, who sought them not only in England,
but also in foreign universities. With their advice and
concurrence, he undertook the government of his clergy
with a firm hand. He took pains to become personally
acquainted with each individual priest, especially with
those whom he destined for positions of importance,
or for the care of a parish. It is impossible to give any

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. viii. Roger Rolleston became Dean in 1195.
By him was drawn up the account of the functions and privileges of the
Cathedral Chapter of Lincoln, referred to in the Note at the end of this
chapter, [ED.]

1 5 o THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

idea of the amount of time and thought which he spent
upon these nominations. " I cannot understand," he often
said, " how any prelate can be glad to have a vacant
benefice to bestow. For myself, I never feel such
anxiety and distress of mind, as when I have to
appoint some ecclesiastic, who ought to possess all the
qualities which are necessary for ecclesiastical dignities.
Nothing is more bitter to me than to find myself
deceived in my hopes, and to discover that those I
have chosen are unworthy of the confidence reposed in
them." For even the penetration of the holy Bishop
was sometimes at fault. He had often to trust advisers
who, while they appeared to be animated by the fear
of God, were really swayed by human considerations
and sought only to advance the interests of their family
or their friends. But as soon as he became aware of
this faithlessness, he was extremely indignant, and
banished the offenders from his counsels. Taught by
experience, he came at last to appoint one of his clergy,
a man whom he could thoroughly trust, to examine
into the antecedents of all candidates for benefices, and
after prudent investigation, to report to himself in each
case upon the fitness of the person proposed.

Whenever he conferred the title of Canon upon an
ecclesiastic belonging to another diocese, it was always
upon the condition that the new Canon should reside
henceforth in the diocese of Lincoln. " It is right,"
said he, " that those who serve the altar, should live
by the altar ; but those who do not discharge the duties
of the ministry, ought not to reap the fruits of it.
That is simply a theft from the Church, seeing that
such offenders deprive her of the service which is justly
her due." i

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. xi. We shall see later on, in the present
volume, the reply of St. Huijh to a distinguished member of the Academy
of Paris, on this same subject. (Bk. iv. ch. ii.)

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

151

The Bishop of Lincoln carried this loftiness of mind
and this apostolic firmness into every detail of his
administration. He was not of the number of those
useless dignitaries whom he condemned so strongly and
so justly. He laboured incessantly to enhance every-
where the esteem for ecclesiastical learning and holiness
of life, and to make each one of his priests that
"burning and shining light" of which the Gospel
speaks. His taste for theological studies was displayed
in the foundation of a School of Theology which soon
became famous throughout the country, and which drew
to Lincoln many gifted minds, amongst others, Gerald
Barry the Welshman, Giraldus Cambrensis, as he is
commonly called, who tells us that St. Hugh himself
was very learned litUratissimus. The Professor who
presided over the theological school was William of
Leicester, better known as Gulielmus de Monte, or
Montanus, 1 an exceedingly able man and Chancellor of
the diocese. 2 No details have come down to us of the
means which the holy Bishop took to diffuse abroad
the benefits supplied by this centre of learning, but we
know that the encouragement he gave to such institu-
tions, and his clear answers to the professors or students
who came to consult him, obtained for him the title of
the "oracle of the schools " scholarum consultov.

1 Giraldus Cambrensis says he was so called because he had previously
given lessons in theology at Mont-Sainte-Genevieve, in Paris. (De rebus a
se gestis, bk. iii. ch. iii. ; vol. i. of his complete works, p. 93.) Gulielmus
Montanus must have been a voluminous writer, especially upon Scriptural
subjects ; a long catalogue of works attributed to him is given by Tanner
and Bale. Foremost amongst them is mentioned a Concordantia
Bibliorum, which must have been amongst the earliest attempts of the
kind. [Eo. J

2 We learn from the account of the Lincoln customs supplied to Bishop
Bricius, that the Chancellor was ex officio head of the Theological School,
" officium cancellarii est scholas theologicas regere." No one could
lecture in the city of Lincoln without his permission, and it was his
privilege also to appoint the masters of all the schools in the county. [Eo.]

152 THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

At the same time, learning appeared to him of but
little value if it was not accompanied by true piety,
that wisdom from above, which has for its chief
characteristics purity and the love of peace. " First
chaste, then peaceable." l He never let himself be
dazzled by the erudition of those whose private life
was in any way disorderly, or who made themselves
centres of faction and discord. He Sent them away
without mercy, as soon as he perceived their faults.
On the contrary, he always showed the greatest esteem
for the virtuous and the amiable.

Peace was what he loved and desired above all
things; the peace of the souls committed to his care ;
and the peace of his priests by their close union with
him, their chief pastor. " Nothing in this life," he said,
" is to be compared with the blessing of peace ; nothing
is so much to be avoided as what causes strife and
disunion." It was for this reason that he immediately
banished from his diocese all those whom he found
sowing the seeds of schism or discontent among their
brethren.

With that candour and frankness of speech which
he always employed, he exhorted his fellow- Bishops
to follow the same course. He was not afraid at such
times to speak of the close union which existed
between himself and his clergy. " I have learned," he
would say, "that it is necessary for me to cherish
peace and union with those under my authority. By
maintaining this state of things, I fear no mortal man,
not even the King; and I preserve that peace in my
own soul, which is the pledge and prelude of the eternal
rest." Especially did he congratulate himself on his
relations with his Canons. " These good lords of
mine," he said, when speaking of them, "have never
given me cause for uneasiness. It is not that they find

1 St. James iii. 17,

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 1 53

me too kind and too gentle. On the contrary, I fear
that I am wont to be very peppery (sum revera pipere
aspeviov atque mordacior) and that when I am presiding
over the meetings in Chapter, a very little is sufficient
to upset me. But they make a virtue of necessity ;
and put up with me as I am, after having chosen me
in all liberty. I owe them an immense debt of gratitude
for their perfect.obedience. Ever since I came amongst
them, they have never resisted my will in anything
whatsoever. When the Chapter is over, and they have
all gone out, there is not one of them, I am certain,
who doubts of my sincere affection for him, and for my
own part, I am convinced that they in turn are all
devoted to me."

A very charming picture this, in which the simplicity
and straightforwardness of the Saint's own character
stands revealed. He possessed in fact that art so
difficult of attainment, the art of making himself
respected and loved at the same time, of being able
to reprove without bitterness, and to praise without
flattery, of mixing oil with wine in the remedies he
applied, and of making strength go hand in hand with
that meekness which is to conquer the earth.

Two Pastoral Constitutions of St. Hugh, 1 issued for
the benefit of his Cathedral Canons, have come down
to us. The first of them runs thus :

" Hugh, by the grace of God, Bishop of Lincoln, to
all the Archdeacons and their officers established in
the diocese of Lincoln, health and benediction in the
Lord.

" The care of the church of Lincoln, to which God
has appointed us, compels us to turn our attention
to matters which have heretofore been somewhat

1 Two or three other similar Constitutions of St. Hugh, which have
apparently escaped the notice of the author of this Life, will be touched
upon in the Note at the end of the chapter. [ED.]

I 54 THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

neglected, in order that we may apply a suitable
remedy. We are especially bound to watch over the
interests, present and future, of the Canons who serve
God in our Cathedral. Therefore, it is with grief we
see an abuse, to which we can no longer shut our eyes,
and which ought also to grieve you, to whom the care
of the church at Lincoln specially belongs. This
church, which has such a great number of children, is
slighted by many of them, in that they do not take the
trouble to visit her at least once a year, as is the custom
in other dioceses, either by coming in person to the
Cathedral, or by sending an offering in proportion to
their means. We know that this omission is due more
to the negligence of the clergy, than to the ignorance
of the laity. Wherefore, we command you all, by
virtue of our authority, to impress upon all deans,
parish priests, and curates, throughout our diocese, the
following points : In every parish the clergy must
inform their flock, that at the feast of Pentecost, each
family is bound to send one or more of its members to
the accustomed place appointed for the processions,
with suitable offerings, to be given for the remission of
their sins, as a proof of obedience, and as a token
of their remembrance of their mother, the Church of
Lincoln. 1 You must also require the Deans to order

1 These Pentecostal processions made to the Cathedral Church of the
diocese, seem to have been of Norman origin. The earliest mention of
the custom which I have found is to be met with in the canons of the
Concilium Juliobonense of A.D. 1080, which was held by William the
Conqueror and William, Archbishop of Rouen, at Lillebonne. In the gth
of the canons drawn up by this assembly it is provided : " Let the priests
once a year about the time of Pentecost come with their processions to the
mother church, and let a pennyworth of wax (ceres denarata), or its
equivalent for each household be offered at the altar for the lighting of
the church." Not very much later than this, about 1105, we find from the
Life of St. Bernard, Abbot of Tiron (Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii. p. 235),
that vast crowds used to assemble at Coutances about the solemnity
of Pentecost, " to perform in accordance with the custom of their country

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 155

the parish priests and curates under their jurisdiction,
by our authority, to keep an accurate list of their
parishioners and to make answer at Pentecost to the
said Deans and such clerics as we shall appoint for the
purpose, informing them which of their parishioners
have conformed to our order, as obedient children, and
which have neglected to perform this duty."

Another Pastoral Letter, also in favour of the
Canons of Lincoln, is conceived in the following terms :
" Hugh, by the grace of God Bishop of Lincoln, to his
beloved sons in Christ, the Dean and Chapter of our
Cathedral Church of Lincoln, health and benediction in
the Lord. Since it is our ardent desire for the honour
of Almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary His
Mother, at all times to see the Divine Offices celebrated
in our Cathedral with every suitable solemnity; we
therefore, for the attainment of this end, and in the
interests of our Canons and their Vicars, concede the
following rights to you, the Dean and resident Canons,
or in the absence of the Dean, to the Sub-Dean and
resident Canons. In virtue of our episcopal powers,
we authorize you to compel those Canons who do not
keep residence, to appoint suitable vicars in their place
and to furnish them with such adequate means of
support as the chapter of resident Canons may decide
upon by common consent, and if such non-resident
Canons neglect to make this provision, you are to con-
strain them to do so by detaining the revenues of their

(juxta morem patrice], the procession which they were bound to make to
the principal church of the diocese." Similar early allusions to these pro-
cessions may be found in the case of Auxerre and other French dioceses.
In England a great dispute had arisen, only a few years before St. Hugh's
time, about this very question of the Pentecostal procession and its
offerings, between Robert de Chesney, Bishop of Lincoln, and the Abbot
of St. Albans. The custom seems to have lasted in this country down to
the Reformation, and we find mention of the Pentecostal*, as these special
dues were called, even in the seventeenth century. [ED.]

I 5 6 THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

pn bend. Moreover, we authorize you to take action
by means of ecclesiastical censures against all unjust
detainers of the revenues of your common fund, and
against all who have done injury or hurt to either the
persons or the property which belong to the said
common fund ; and these canonical penalties shall be
enforced until complete restitution or satisfaction has
been made, always without infringement of the rights
of the Bishop and his authority. Moreover, no Arch-
deacon, or Dean, or any other officer of the see of Lincoln
may absolve those whom you have excommunicated or
laid under an interdict, without permission from the
Bishop, or from you. And we command that all
sentences pronounced by you, be executed by the Arch-
deacons, Deans, and other officers of the diocese." 1

Besides the light which these letters throw upon the
ecclesiastical discipline of the twelfth century, they also
bear witness to the zeal of St. Hugh in recalling all
his clergy to a sense of their duties, in re-establishing
good customs which had fallen into disuse, and in
making his authority felt and acknowledged in the
smallest country parish, as much as in his Cathedral
Church.

Under such a government as this, a great change
was soon manifest in the diocese of Lincoln ; so great,
in fact, as to attract the attention and admiration of all
serious observers. Some of the most respected among
the Bishops were so struck by the success of St. Hugh,
that they desired to learn the secret of it for themselves.
Even Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, had recourse
to the advice of his suffragan in an affair of moment,

1 The original Latin text of these constitutions may be found in an
appendix to the French edition of this Life. It is not reproduced here, as
it is accessible to English scholars among the works of Giraldus Cambrensis
(Rolls Scries) vol. vii., and also in the Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, pp. 307,
308.

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 157

which at this time was troubling the peace of that
ancient Cathedral City. The difficulty we refer to was
caused by a collegiate church which the Primate had
begun to build on land belonging to the see, in honour
of St. Stephen and St. Thomas of Canterbury. The
monks of the Cathedral, who were the custodians of
the relics of the great English Martyr, conceived this
to be an infringement of their rights and privileges,
and opposed the building of the new church with all
their might. It was in vain that the Primate, who had
just received from Pope Urban III. 1 the archiepiscopal
pall and the title of Legate, obtained also that Pontiff's
special sanction to carry out this design. The monks
knew that the cause could be again referred to
Rome, and that another decision might be pronounced
reversing the former one. This was the possibility
which St. Hugh at once foresaw when the Archbishop
asked for his advice in the matter, and which he urged
in his reply. "My Lord Archbishop," he wrote, "if
this work you have undertaken, should be the cause
of a schism between you and your Chapter, it will end
so far as the monks are concerned in a great weakening
of religious discipline, and so far as regards yourself in
a serious blow to your authority. The souls of your
flock will suffer much, as it is easy to foresee. The
King will want to interfere, and your power will have
to bend to his. The Sovereign Pontiff will change his
mind, when he has listened to the complaints which
are sure to be made against you, and will command
you to pull down your church, even if it be completely
finished."

The Archbishop, who had this design very much at

heart, pleaded that St. Thomas a Becket had himself

intended to build this church in honour of St. Stephen.

" Yes," replied St. Hugh, " and do you content yourself

1 See Baronius, Annul, ad annum 1186, n. 16.

158 THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

with having had the same intention as the holy martyr.
If you will take my humble advice, you will stop at the
intention, and let the work proceed no farther."

But other, and more pleasing counsels, prevailed
with the Primate, who continued building his church,
instead of remembering those words of Divine wisdom :
" The soul of a holy man discovereth sometimes true
things, more than seven watchmen that sit in a high
place to watch." 1 Everything that the man of God
foretold, was realized to the letter.' 2 A pontifical decree
commanded the entire demolition of the edifice, and
the Primate had to obey, to his great chagrin, regretting
when too late that he had not taken the advice of the
Bishop of Lincoln, who was only confirmed more and
more in his pacific ideas. We shall see later on, how
the Saint was called upon by the Pope to act as
arbitrator in another dispute between the same monks
and the successor of Baldwin. It is true that before
this came to pass he was himself engaged in more than
one conflict, but he had never to fight against his own
clergy. On the contrary, it was always in defence of
his ecclesiastical family that he felt himself obliged to
do battle. If ever he made war, it was with the hope
of securing a more lasting peace in the end.

NOTE TO BOOK II., CHAPTER IV.

IT is perhaps to be regretted that the author, in pre-
paring this account of the relations of St. Hugh and
his clergy, should apparently not have had before him
the extremely interesting statement which we possess
describing the functions, ceremonial, privileges, &c., of

1 Ecclus. xxxvii. 18.

5 Peter of Blois, who was appointed by the Archbishop to plead his
cause with the Pope, has left us (let. 211) interesting details of this affair.
(Migne, P.L. vol. ccvii. cot 492.)

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 159

the Cathedral Chapter of Lincoln at the end of the
twelfth century. The documents I refer to are preserved
in a MS. of the Advocate's Library, Edinburgh, whence
they were long ago extracted and printed in the first
volume of Wilkins' Concilia Anglic. 1 " The fame of
the church of Lincoln," to quote the late Mr. Henry
Bradshaw's account of the matter, " had become so
widespread, especially during the recent episcopate of
St. Hugh (1186 1200), that when Bricius, Bishop of
Moray, established a miniature Chapter of eight Canons
in his newly-settled cathedral church of Spyny, he laid
down that they were to have all the privileges and
immunities and be subject to the customs of the great
church of Lincoln." He accordingly obtained from the
Dean, Roger de Rolleston, and other members of the
Chapter, a careful statement of their customs, and
although in the muniment-room of Lincoln itself we
now find amongst the various Registra Consuetudinum only
compilations of a very much later date, the summary
supplied to Bishop Bricius at the beginning of the
thirteenth century has happily been preserved to us in
Scotland. A Papal confirmation of the charter of
erection of the Chapter of Spyny is still in existence,
and it is dated 1214. The customs recorded in the
accompanying document may therefore be taken as
representing the practice of St. Hugh's own time, the
more so as the statement of them was drawn up by
Roger de Rolleston, who was Dean under St. Hugh,
and was chosen by him as one of the executors of his
will. No better evidence could be found for the
harmonious relations between the Carthusian Bishop
and his secular Canons than this adoption of the
Lincoln customs by visitors from the far north. It
would be impossible here to give any satisfactory
account of the details of these customs. I will content

1 Pp. 534, seq.

160 THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY.

myself with calling attention to one very prominent
feature, which we know to have been ratified and even
amplified by St. Hugh himself in a formal document,
which Roger de Kolleston thought it worth while to
copy and to transmit with the summary to Bishop
Bricius. This constitution declares and confirms the
absolute immunity of the Canons in their prebends from
all fees and exactions on the part of the Bishop or
the Archdeacons of the diocese, and even guarantees
the freedom of the parishioners resident upon these
prebends from any charges or legal proceedings of the
Archdeacons. The powers given to the Canons in this
way were so great that they were recognized as pos-
sessing jurisdiction over their parishioners in all civil
and ecclesiastical causes of every kind, without inter-
ference of any man, except that an appeal lay from their
decision to the Dean, the Chapter, or the Bishop.
" And this," says Roger de Rolleston, " we say without
any distinction, whether the aforesaid parishioners be
clerics or laymen, whether they be the men and the
vassals of the canon himself, or of our lord the king,
or of the bishop, or of any baron, or knight, or franklin
(frankelani), or any other man."

The documents of which we have been speaking
also furnish some interesting information about the
ceremonial followed by the Lincoln Canons in the time
of St. Hugh. This, however, hardly belongs to the
present place. I will only remark that it is rather
startling to our modern ideas of reverence for the
Blessed Sacrament to find that the Canons remained
seated in their stalls during nearly the whole of the
Canon of the Mass, only rising to their feet for a few
moments at the Elevation to bow towards the altar,
and during the Pater noster. This of course was due to
no lack of reverence for holy things, but was an
inheritance from the different system of an earlier age.

THE BISHOP AND HIS CLERGY. 161

Such usages are mainly if not entirely matters of con-
vention. A Jew wears his hat out of a motive of
respect where we for the same reason remove it.

Another constitution of St. Hugh, still preserved
to us among the miscellaneous contents of the Lincoln
Liber Niger, was an arrangement to provide for the
daily recitation of the entire psalter (the hundred and
fifty psalms) among the different Canons. There was,
says the preamble to the document, an ancient institute
(antiqua institutio) of the Church of Lincoln, by which
one Mass and one psalter were said every day on behalf
of benefactors living and dead. " We are then told that
all the Canons are bound by oath to observe the reason-
able customs (rationabiles consuetudines) of the Church ;
that the customary mode of saying the psalter (the
assignment of particular psalms to particular members
of the Chapter) had been lost ; and that to save the
Canons from violating their oath, an order had been
drawn up by the Dean and other discreet members of
the Chapter, which was now passed in Chapter, the
Bishop (St. Hugh) being present and confirming the
order." From the data given the statute must belong
to the closing years of the twelfth century (1195 1200). 1
In accordance with this distribution, St. Hugh himself
will have had to recite every day for the souls of the
benefactors of this church the first three psalms, Beatus
vir, Quare fretmierunt, and Domine quid multiplicati sunt.

Finally, a brief reference may be made here to
certain disciplinary ordinances promulgated by St. Hugh
in his diocesan synods, and preserved to us in the
chronicle of Benedict, sub anno 1186. Of these some-
thing more will be said further on in the Note to
Book III. ch. 4. [ED.]

1 Lincoln. Cathedral Statutes, edited by Henry Bradshaw, pp. 37, 38,

CHAPTER V.

THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER.

AFTER the conquest of England by the Normans, new
and more severe forest laws oppressed the Saxon
people. "The chase," writes Lingard, "was the
principal amusement of our Norman kings, who, for
this reason, took possession of all the forests throughout
the kingdom, and cared much more for the preservation
of their wild animals, than for the life or well-being of
their subjects. The royal forests had their own officers
and magistrates ; they were governed by a peculiar
code of laws, and their immunities were jealously
maintained in the court of the chief forester, a bloody
tribunal, where the slightest offence was punished by
the loss of eyes or members." 1 Perhaps it is just to
remark here that these cruel laws seem to have been
designed, not only to protect the pleasures of the
Norman kings, but to keep the Anglo-Saxons from
rebellion, by depriving them of their forests, always
the last asylum of a conquered race.

When Henry II. came to the throne, he modified
some of the barbarous ordinances of his predecessors,
and substituted fines and imprisonment, for mutilation
or death. 2 But even with these mitigations, the forest

1 See Lingard's History of England, vol. i. ch. xii.

a It seems difficult in the face of the statements of Matthew Paris (sub
anno 1232), quoted by Mr. \\ . K. Fisher in The Forest of Essex, p. 70, to
believe that the punishment of mutilation was fm.illy ivinitu-d by Henry II.,
for offences against the forest laws. The credit of this mitigation is given
by Matthew Paris to his successors Richard and John. Bishop Stubbs

THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER. 163

laws weighed heavily on the people, and were univer-
sally hated, as we read in a letter of Peter of Blois,
who echoes the complaints which were sounding all
around him. He wrote eloquently to the King : " The
innumerable agents of the foresters and rangers, greedy
to satisfy their avarice and cupidity, rob and despoil
the poor in every way ; they lay snares for the simple,
they show favour to the wicked, they oppress the
innocent, they rejoice and congratulate each other on
doing as much evil as possible. . . . They hunt the
poor, as if they were wild animals, and devour them
fora prey." 1 The chaplain of St. Hugh expresses his
indignation in equally strong terms. " Among the
scourges of England," he says, " we must put in the
first rank, the tyranny of the foresters, a tyranny which
ravages the whole country. Violence is their law,
rapine is their glory. They have a horror of justice,
and look upon innocence as a crime. No condition,
no nobility, no dignity, with the single exception of
royalty itself, can secure a man against their atrocious
cruelties. The first great struggle of Hugh was against
this tyranny, and it was also the occasion of his first
triumph." 2

As we have already seen, St. Hugh, while still Prior

says : " The punishments prescribed by the Assize of the Forest (A.D. 1184),
are milder than those usual under Henry I. , but the rigour with which the
law was enforced was a great ground of complaint against Henry II., and
this is altogether the part of his administration which savours most strongly
of tyranny." (Select Charters, p. 157.) [ED.]

1 Petri Blois, Epist. 95. Migne, P.L. vol. ccvii. p. 298.

2 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 9. "The husbandmen," says John of
Salisbury, " are kept from their fields so that the wild beasts may roam
over them. That these may have more room for grazing, the soil is taken
from the cultivators, the newly sown grounds from the farmers, the pastures
from the herdsmen and shepherds ; the beehives are shut out from the
flower beds, and the bees themselves are scarcely allowed their natural
liberty." (Polycraticus, bk. i. ch. 4.) It was intended that the bees should
be driven to take shelter in the woods, where the honey would belong to
the King. [ED.]

U'4 THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER.

of \Yitham, was extremely indignant with the foresters.
Now that he had become a Bishop, and therefore the
pastor and protector of the people committed to his
care, he could not shut his eyes to the oppressive
conduct of these officials, and he determined to employ
against them, not only the weapons of vigorous protest,
but also of ecclesiastical censure. A less intrepid
prelate would at least have waited until time had
strengthened his position and influence ; and there
was the very recent memory of the holy Martyr of
Canterbury, to illustrate the danger incurred by any
prelate who was bold enough to excommunicate the
officers of the King. But St. Hugh did not shrink from
taking advantage of the first opportunity that occurred,
for declaring war against the foresters. As soon as
they attempted to interfere with the tenants and
subjects of the Church of Lincoln, who should have
been protected from their exactions by ecclesiastical
immunity, the holy Bishop, then recently enthroned,
at once excommunicated the chief forester himself,
named Galfrid, without reference to the King or his
possible wishes. When the news of this bold step was
brought to Henry II., he fell into a violent passion. 1
Such an act was a direct violation of the privilege he
had claimed for the crown at Clarendon. '* No tenant
in capitt" so the clause ran, " and no officer of the

1 There is no doubt that the forests were in a very immediate way
subject to the King, and that St. Hugh Was justified, as we have seen
above, p. 109, in holding him personally responsible for abuses. Bishop
Stubbs talks of his " uncontrolled jurisdiction " in this province, and notes
that the forests were "out of the scope of the common law of the realm."
Nevertheless, so well informed a writer as Mr. W. R. Fisher declares :
"Much of the hardship suffered by the inhabitants of the forests arose
from the arbitrary regulations of the forest officers and from the manner
in which they enforced the laws, as much as from the laws themselves.
This appears from various ordinances, by which relief was given against
demands not directly authorized by the general forest laws and by the
proceedings of the forest courts." (Forest of Essex, p. 52.) [ED.]

THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER. 165

King, shall be excommunicated, or his land laid under
an interdict, unless the matter is first referred to the
King, or if he be absent from the country, to his officers,
in order that justice may be done." l Even though he
had retracted this ordinance with the other Constitu-
tions of Clarendon, the King, nevertheless, expected it
to be observed in practice. However, he disguised his
resentment at first, and waited until some other event
should occur which would give him a favourable
opportunity for showing his displeasure with the Bishop
and obtaining reparation.

While matters were in this state, a Canon of Lincoln
died, and left his prebend vacant. The courtiers being
informed of this, advised the King to write to the
Bishop, in order to obtain this important benefice for
one of themselves. In this way, they thought they
would be giving the Bishop an opportunity of re-
instating himself in the King's favour, and at the same
time would be serving their own interests. Henry II.
did not hesitate to do as was suggested to him, for he
was very anxious to know exactly how he stood with
this new Bishop of his, and how far he could go.

The messengers of the King had not to take a
very long journey. Henry was then at his castle of
Woodstock, and the Bishop was at Dorchester, which
was only thirteen miles from the royal residence. Hugh
read the King's letter, and without misunderstanding
the gravity of the situation, made his decision at once.
Instead of granting the request, or even setting out to
explain by word of mouth the reason of his refusal,
and to justify his conduct with regard to the Grand
Forester, he simply replied to the messengers: "Tell
the King that ecclesiastical benefices are not to be
bestowed upon courtiers, but upon ecclesiastics. Holy
Scripture does not say that those who possess them
l Constitutions of Clarendon, art. 7.

i66 THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER.

are to be officials of the palace, or of the treasury, or
of the exchequer, but only that they must be servants
of the altar. My lord the King has plenty of other
rewards for those in his employment ; he has temporal
^ifts to give them, in exchange for temporal service.
And if he wishes to save his soul, he must allow the
soldiers of the King of kings to enjoy the revenues
which they need, without seeking to despoil them."
These were all the compliments and excuses which the
messengers carried back with them. Hugh did not
even take the trouble to write his answer, but dismissed
his visitors without further ceremony.

When the Bishop's reply was received at Woodstock,
Henry could not conceal the fury which took possession
of him, and the courtiers were not slow to fan the flame.
" My lord," they said, " now you see the ingratitude
of this man, whom you have loaded with benefits ; you
see what has been the end of all your generous efforts,
you, who took so much pains to raise him to the
episcopate. If he contented himself simply with showing
you no gratitude, we should be less astonished. But
now he insults you, in return for the honour you have
done him. It is very easy to foretell what you may
expect from him in the future, when he already begins
to treat you with contempt, and has pronounced such
a harsh sentence upon one of your chief officers."

There was not much need to excite the anger of the
passionate monarch, who, nevertheless, still kept it
under a certain control, and sent a new messenger to
the Bishop, commanding him at once to appear in the
royal presence at Woodstock, and give an explanation
of his conduct. Hugh obeyed the King's mandate, and
set out with a serene countenance, and a tranquil heart.
What cause had he for fear, when he was resolved to
sacrifice all for the sake of duty? The Bishop of
Lincoln would have hesitated no more than St. Thomas

THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER, 167

of Canterbury, to shed his blood in defence of the
liberty of the Church.

Perhaps Henry II. had not the intention of pro-
ceeding to extremities, but he wished at least to
humiliate him, and force him to make a public repara-
tion for the supposed insult. Therefore, when he
heard that the Bishop was approaching, he called the
members of his Court around him, mounted his horse,
and retired into a neighbouring forest. There he
stopped, sat down in a pleasant woodland glade,
ordered his courtiers to sit in a circle round him, and
forebade any of them to rise in the presence of the
disgraced Bishop, or to return his greeting. A few
moments afterwards, St. Hugh came upon the scene ;
he saluted the King and his Court, but no one made any
response to his courtesy. Then, without being in the
least embarrassed by the freezing silence, he walked up
to the King, gently touched the shoulder of the courtier
next him, to make room for himself, and calmly sat
down beside the King. The silence continued, the
King kept his eyes fixed upon the ground. But after
a few minutes, feeling the constraint and awkwardness
of the situation, he asked one of his attendants for a
needle and thread, and began to sew a little piece of
linen round one of his fingers, which was cut. All the
while, like a man too angry to speak, he said not
a word, nor took the slightest notice of the intruder.

The Bishop perfectly understood the meaning of
this theatrical reception, but he was not at all afraid.
He turned to the King, and said with a familiarity which
only their former friendship could have warranted :
" Now, do you know, you look exactly like your
ancestress at Falaise ! " At this unexpected sally, the
point of which he immediately understood, the King
was seized with a fit of uncontrollable laughter. The
courtiers around him were stupefied with astonishment.

ifi8 THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER.

A few of them, who caught the drift of the Bishop's
allusion, were amazed at his audacity at such a time,
and scarcely dared to smile. The others, who had not
understood the pleasantry, looked uneasily from one to
another in search of an explanation. The King himself
supplied it. His mood had suddenly changed, and the
serene confidence of the servant of God had completely
calmed his resentment. "You do not understand," he
said, smilingly, " the impertinence which this foreigner
has just addressed to me. I will explain his words
to you. The mother of my ancestor, William of
Normandy, who conquered England, belonged originally
to the common people. She was a native of Falaise,
a Norman town famed especially for its tan-yards. 1
And, seeing me occupied in sewing this piece of linen
round my finger, he dared to remind me of the fact,
and to compare me to the glove-makers of Falaise."

The King had laughed, therefore he had laid down
his arms. Nevertheless, after having thus graciously
accepted a compliment, which certainly was more
audacious than flattering, he began to question the
Bishop of Lincoln about what he had done. He did
so abruptly, but with kindness. " Now," he said,
" tell me, holy man, why you have excommunicated
my Grand Forester, and why, afterwards, you refused
me a small request, without taking the trouble to come
to me, or to send any excuse by my messengers ? "
The Bishop replied : " My lord King, I know all you
have done to obtain for me the episcopal dignity. And
it follows from that, that your soul would be in great
danger if I did not fulfil all the duties of my position,
and if I did not defend the interests of the diocese
which you have committed to my care. That is why

1 William the Conqueror, grandfather of Henry II., was a natural son
of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and of Hervele, or Harlotte, the daughter
Qf a tanner at Falaise.

THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER. 169

I have been obliged to punish with ecclesiastical
censures, an oppressor of my Church ; that is why I
could not bestow a prebend upon a person who had no
canonical right to it. Was it necessary for me to
consult your Excellence, before taking action in these
matters ? I do not think so. It did not seem to me
either necessary or expedient, and I believed that your
own good sense would have shown you what was right,
and that my conduct would have had your approval."

This firm and dignified answer was well received
by the King. He could not deny the justice of it ; he
affectionately embraced the man of God, and recom-
mended himself to his prayers. Nothing more was
said about the prebend, and the absolution of the
Grand Forester was left entirely in the hands of the
Bishop. Hugh exacted the usual conditions. This
distinguished personage, who eventually showed every
sign of a sincere repentance, had to submit himself, as
well as those who aided and abetted him, to a public
flagellation. After having received the discipline, he
was absolved and blessed by the Bishop. What is
more, he understood the uprightness of the Saint's
intentions so well, that he afterwards became one of
his greatest friends, and rendered him every possible
service.

From this time, the censures of the holy Bishop
were much feared, and his authority, thus vindicated
in the beginning of his administration, was completely
established without any further difficulty, both in his
own diocese and at Court. By this fresh victory, he
was delivered from the importunities of the King's
followers, who would never otherwise have ceased to
ask for the benefices of his Church ; and at the same
time, he secured their esteem and their respect. Many
of them were so entirely devoted to him, that he used
to say, if it were not for the bonds which attached them

170 THE AFFAIR OF THE GRAND FORESTER.

to the Court, he would have been glad to appoint them
to some of the best prebends in his gift.

Thus delivered, at all events for a time, from any
difficulties on the part of the King, Hugh now devoted
himself entirely to the care of his diocese, and to all
good works for the glory of God, and the salvation of
souls. Amongst these, one of the most pressing and
not the least important, was the rebuilding of the
Cathedral Church of Lincoln, of which we have now
to speak.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

THE Venerable Bede tells us that one of the first stone
churches in England was built at Lincoln, in the
seventh century, by Paulinus, Bishop of York, who
began the conversion of this ancient city by making
a Christian of its Governor. 1 This church, remarkable
for its beauty, considering the date of its construction, 2
became a place of pilgrimage, famous for the miracles
worked there. Nevertheless, it was not a Cathedral,
and its memory was effaced by the magnificent building
afterwards erected, which is one of the glories of the
architecture of the middle ages.

The history of this church is also the history of the
diocese of Lincoln. We will touch briefly upon its
principal features, in order to give prominence to the
part taken by St. Hugh in this immortal creation.

In its primitive form, the Cathedral of Lincoln was
built by the first Bishop of the diocese, Remigius,
formerly Abbot of Fecamp, who came to England in
the train of William of Normandy, and was appointed
Bishop of Dorchester in 1070. Five years later, by
order of a Council held in London, it was enjoined that
all episcopal seats which were exposed to attack from
their unprotected situation should be transferred to
some walled town. It seems to have been about this
time, therefore, that Remigius, acting on the decision

1 Venerable Bede, Hist. Ecclesiast. bk. ii. ch. 16.

2 " Ecclesiam operis egregii de lapide fecit." (Ibid.)

172 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

of Pope Alexander and Archbishop Lanfranc, 1 trans-
ferred his episcopal throne to Lincoln, where a fortified
castle, constructed within the last few years, could
protect his residence, and later on the Cathedral which
he hoped to build. Full of enthusiasm and energy, as
well as of piety and charity to the poor, this worthy
predecessor of St. Hugh laid the foundations of an
imposing edifice in the Byzantine style, which was
much in vogue at that time, especially in Normandy.
The work went on rapidly, and the Bishop was pre-
paring for the solemn consecration of his new church,
when he died on the very eve of the day appointed for
the ceremony, May 8, iog2. 2

His successor, Robert Bloet, a former chaplain of
William the Conqueror, had the consolation of opening
the church to the piety of the faithful, and of dedicating
it to our Lady. We may mention here, that during
the lifetime of this same prelate, the Church of Saint
Mary, or Our Lady of Lincoln, was one of the churches
which contributed an eulogium, in Latin verse, to the
mortuary-roll of St. Bruno, in which the virtues of the
illustrious founder of the Carthusians are eloquently
summed up and extolled. 3

1 Monast. Anglic, Hi. 258. It may be added that Dorchester, situated
as it is upon the Thames in the extreme S.W. corner of the great tract of
country then included in the diocese, was obviously unfitted to be the site
of the cathedral city. [ED.]

* Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote his Life, gives him the title of
"Saint," and relates several miracles worked by his intercession.

s These mortuary-rolls, the albums of the middle ages, were a con-
spicuous feature of the religious life of the twelfth and subsequent centuries,
and originated in the practice of the different monasteries banding them-
selves together in a sort of association, to pray for the deceased members
of each other's communities. From this resulted a custom of each religious
house sending out from time to time a circular letter addressed to the
others associated with it, and containing the names of the dead to be
prayed for. When any person of special prominence died, it became
usual, even among seculars, to draw up a memorial commemorative of
his dignity or virtues, and, inscribing this at the head of a long roll of

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 173

It was right and fitting, therefore, that in after years
a son of St. Bruno, become Bishop of Lincoln, should
lovingly set himself to the task of restoring the Cathedral
Church which had thus deserved well of his Order.
However, before St. Hugh's time, important repairs
had already been executed in the original building by
Bishop Alexander, after a fire which took place in ii2^.. 1
Some authors also attribute to him the erection of the
stone vaulting of the nave. In any case, he left his
successors, Robert of Chesney and Walter of Coutances,
little to do ; but in the very year when this last Bishop
was translated to the archbishopric of Rouen, that is
to say, in 1185, an earthquake took place which com-
pletely destroyed the roof and left wide fissures in the
side walls.

It was in this ruinous state that St. Hugh found the

blank parchment, to entrust the document to a messenger who travelled
from one monastery to another, soliciting the prayers of the inmates for
the deceased. At each halting-place the community affixed to the blank
portion of the roll their " title," i.e., the name of the monastery, with the
addition of some little formula promising prayers. As time went on, these
"titles" were often augmented with a few words of sympathy for the
bereaved community to which the deceased had belonged, and as a further
development a copy of verses was in some cases composed and written
upon the roll, as people now write verses in a lady's album, generally
eulogizing the deceased at considerable length. A copy of the mortuary-roll
sent out by the companions of St. Bruno after his death is still preserved to
us, and abounds in verse tributes of this kind. From the entries on the roll
we discover that the messenger who carried it, starting from Calabria,
where St. Bruno died, travelled the whole length of Italy, passed backwards
and forwards through France, crossed the Channel into England, when he
visited Lincoln amongst other places, and brought away the copy of verses
referred to in the text, and finally returned to France again. We learn
from dates inscribed on the roll that he must have taken more than a year
over his journey. The reader may be referred to an article on this subject,
entitled "A Medieeval Mortuary-Card," in The Month for December,
1896. -[ED.]

1 There is much obscurity as to the date and the amount of damage
done by this fire. Henry of Huntingdon, our best authority, assigns the
fire to about 1145, and he says nothing of the church being vaulted by
Alexander. (See Dimock, Preface to Giraldus Cambrensis, Of era, vol. vii,
p. xxx.) [ED.]

174

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

Cathedral when he took possession of his diocese. He
immediately set to work to rebuild it on a new plan.
While preserving the beautiful remains of the former
edifice, he adopted the new style which was then
coming into favour and had already been employed at
Angers, at Poitiers, and at Tours. 1 In this way he
became the second founder of the great Cathedral, and
must be counted among the Bishops who took the lead
in that wonderful movement of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries to which we owe the masterpieces of archi-
tectural skill which are the marvel of all time.

After the heroic enthusiasm which gave birth to the
Crusades, nothing in the middle ages is more wonderful
than the creation of these Cathedrals. The vivid faith
of that epoch seems, as it were, to have taken flesh in
these superb erections, with their lofty vaulting, their
slender columns, their colossal towers, their magnificent
stained glass, and their innumerable ornaments of stone,
of all which the pointed arch is the distinguishing
characteristic. Whatever may be the opinion of
archaeologists as to the origin of the pointed arch
itself, it is certain that Gothic architecture came into
being in the twelfth century, and was the offspring of
a piety which struggled to find some new and unheard-
of expression for its spiritual aspirations, for its trium-
phant sense of the spread of Catholicism. In words
that are well known, but which it is always delightful
to read again, M. de Montalembert has given eloquent
expression to the true secret of Gothic architecture.
Although he is speaking especially of the thirteenth
century, his remarks may well be applied to the end
of the twelfth, which was to the century that followed
it, as the dawn to the perfect day.

" It seems," he says, " as if that stirring and upheaval

1 In reference to this statement see the note at the end of the chapter.

LED.]

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 175

of the spiritual world brought home to us in the lives of
St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Louis, could find no
other outward expression than in these gigantic Cathe-
drals, soaring heavenwards with their towers and spires,
as though they would carry with them to the throne of
God an universal homage of love and victorious faith
from all Christian hearts. The vast basilicas of the
ages that had gone before seemed too bare, too heavy,
too empty for the emotions of the present hour, for the
swift upward flight of a faith which had renewed its
youth like the eagle. This living flame of faith needed
to transform itself into stone and leave its monument
behind it. Pontiffs and architects sought after some
new combination which might embody the wealth of
spiritual aspirations of which Christianity became
suddenly conscious. They found it in the outline of
those slender pillars which in a Christian Church stand
fronting each other, until, mounting higher and higher,
like prayers ascending to Heaven, they bend before the
face of God, and meet one another in a sisterly embrace:
it is that bending and embracing which has given us
the pointed arch. From the thirteenth century onwards,
when this architectural feature first came to prevail
universally, a change has swept over the spirit of
Christian art, not indeed in the interior and mystical
significance of our religious buildings, but in their
external form. Instead of those roofs brooding over
the earth, spreading far and wide to afford shelter to
the faithful, everything in the new architecture soars
heavenwards, and leads the soul up to God. . . . Innu-
merable beauties of structure and form came into being
in this new blossoming of the earth made fruitful by
the faith of Christ, and in every church we see in the
marvellous elaboration of capitals, steeples, and window-
tracery, the same fecundity in some measure renewed." 1

1 Life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Montalembert. (Introduction).

176 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

To undertake and carry on the construction of these
Cathedrals, it was needful to combine the efforts of every
kind of talent and resource. Every one who could help
had to be pressed into the service. Rich and poor,
priests and monks, workmen and artists, confraternities
and other associations, united their forces. The building
of a great church called out an army who marched to
their work as the Crusaders marched to battle.

In the middle of the twelfth century, for instance,
the spectacle might have been seen of whole bands of
voluntary workers harnessing themselves to the carts
which were to draw the necessary materials for building
the Church of Our Lady of Chartres. Their example
was followed in Normandy by men of all classes of the
people, as Hugh of Amiens, Archbishop of Rouen,
relates in a letter dated 1145. He says :

" These voluntary labourers admit no one to share
their toil, unless he has first confessed his sins and
done penance for them, unless he has renounced all
animosity and desire of vengeance, and is in perfect
charity with all his enemies. When all this is satis-
factorily arranged, the band elect a chief from among
themselves, under whose guidance they drag along the
carts in silence and humility, and present their offerings
with tears of contrition, taking the discipline the while.
. . . Often their faith is rewarded by miracles which
God works upon the sick persons who accompany them,
and these have the joy of returning home perfectly
cured." 1

About the same time, Aimon, Abbot of Saint-Pierre-
sur-Dive, in the diocese of Seez, wrote a similar account
to the monks of Tutbury, in England. His church
owed its completion to one of these remarkable associa-
tions of voluntary workers which were then common

1 Migne, P.L., vol. cxcii. p. 1127.

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 177

throughout Normandy. The writer speaks in the
highest terms of the faith and the piety displayed in
these gatherings, which were specially conspicuous for
their devotion to our Blessed Lady.

" When the labourers arrived at the place where
the church was to be built," he says, " they made a
circle with the carts they had dragged there, so as to
form a kind of spiritual camp, in which during the
whole of the night following the army mounted guard
in relays, singing hymns and canticles. The sick and
infirm were laid in the carts, and lamps and candles
were lighted, while relics of the Saints were placed
beside each in hope that the sufferers might obtain
some relief. Prayers were offered for them, and pro-
cessions formed under the direction of the clergy, to
obtain their cure from our Lord and His Blessed
Mother." 1

At the end of his account, Aimon asserts that these
things were to be witnessed more especially during the
building of churches in honour of the Blessed Virgin.

Such examples could not fail to attract a good deal
of attention in England, and we may well believe that
St. Hugh must have quoted them as a model to his
own people. However that may be, the radiant vision
of Mary smiled upon the work with the sweetest and
most powerful encouragement. Under the spell of that
beloved name, there was no difficulty in bringing
together men of good-will, and making them under-
stand that nothing could be too beautiful to give expres-
sion to the immaculate loveliness of the Mother of God,
and so, to honour the Infinite Beauty of which she is
the reflection. Hugh had nothing to do but to confirm
the dedication already chosen for his Cathedral, but

1 Mabillon, Annales Benedictini, bk. 78, n. 67 ; Migne, P.L., vol.
clxxxi. p. 1707.
It

X 7 8 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

m vt-r before had the name of Our Lady of Lincoln
I pronounced with such filial tenderness, never
before had it called forth such a manifestation of
devotion.

To raise a monument worthy of her whom he loved
to style his Lady and his Queen, Hugh was ready to
bestow, not only his revenues, but his own personal
service. He himself worked as a labourer, like a
general who does the duty of a common soldier in order
to encourage his troops. With some such object as
this, the Bishop of Lincoln was to be seen hewing
stones and carrying bricks and mortar, in the midst
of a crowd of workmen. The fact might have been
forgotten, but for a miracle which took place and has
perpetuated the memory of it. One Good Friday, a
poor lame man, leaning on two crutches, was so struck
by the sight of the Bishop's humility, that he asked as
a favour to be allowed to use the rough hod which the
Saint had just been carrying over his shoulder. The
cripple did this in the spirit of faith, receiving the tool
as a pledge of his cure. His confidence was not
deceived, for in a very short time after the hod was
laid upon his shoulder, he drew himself up, completely
cured, threw away his crutches, and walked without
difficulty. 1

While vigorously pushing on the execution of his
great work, St. Hugh did not neglect to stamp it with
the impress of his own conceptions. He had already
chosen an architect worthy of such an undertaking, to
whom he imparted his ideas. And when the Bishop
was on his death-bed, we shall see this same artist,

1 Vita. Metrica, v. 836 846. Annul. Ord. Carthus. vol. iii. p. 79,
which quotes: Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 15, though in Mr. Dimock's
edition, bk. iii. has but 14 chapters and the story is omitted altogether.
We should perhaps be justified in reconstructing from tins incident some
such scene of organized but voluntary labour of the populace, as those
we have just been reading of in the building of the churches of Normandy

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 179

whose name was Geoffrey de Noiers, summoned to
receive his last instructions. 1

The rebuilding of the Cathedral went on steadily,
one part being finished before another part was begun,
so that the Offices of the Church could be performed
without waiting for its final completion. And, in fact,
this did not take place until after the death of St. Hugh.
We may add that one special care of the holy Bishop
was to provide amply for the lighting of the Cathedral.
He pressed this so far that at night the brilliancy of
the thousands of wax-candles vied, it is said, with the
light of day. 2

According to an English account, printed at Lincoln, 3
the actual Cathedral owes to St. Hugh the east tran-
sept, the whole of the choir, the chapter-house, the east
side of the west transept, and a part of the additions
made to the west front, the great arches of which
belong to the Byzantine style of the Norman school,
and date from the first construction of the edifice. If
St. Hugh did not live long enough to finish his work,
at least it owed its principal developments to his
initiative. The Bishop second in succession from him,
Hugh of Wells, a prelate of great merit, was parti-
cularly careful to carry out the designs of his prede-
cessor and namesake. And it is believed that this
second Hugh finished the nave, in accordance with the
plans of his namesake, and so completed that part of
the Cathedral which is known to Lincoln antiquaries
as ''the Church of St. Hugh;" that is to say, three
quarters of the actual building. The pointed style,
with lancet windows, characterizes the completed work
of the Saint, and distinguishes it, both from the earlier

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 16. 2 Magnet Vita, bk. v. ch. 19.

3 An Historical Account of Lincoln Cathedral. Lincoln : W. and
B. Brooke. It seems certain, however, that the chapter-house is not
St. Hugh's work. Cf. e.g. the excellent account of Lincoln in King's
Handbook to the Cathedrals of England, published by Murray. [ED.]

iSo THE CATHEDRAL ul- LINCOLN.

survivals of the Norman period, and from the later
Gothic work in the decorated style.

Taken as a whole, the Cathedral of Lincoln is really
the achievement of the man who began it, and com-
pleted the most essential portion of the fabric. 1 At the
south angle of the magnificent west front, is still to be
seen a statue, which tradition declares to be that of
St. Hugh. However much, therefore, the Reformation
may have turned aside the hearts of the people from the
faith which he professed, his memory has not been wholly
eradicated in the city which was the scene of his labours.

The traveller, as he approaches Lincoln, is struck
with admiration long before he reaches it, at the sight
of the old Cathedral with its three grand towers,
which from the hill-top overshadows the town and
the whole surrounding country. Even if he is familiar
with the finest religious monuments of France and
England, he cannot fail to be impressed by this edifice,
which can bear comparison with the Cathedrals of
Chartres, of Amiens, of Bourges, or those of Canterbury,
York, and Salisbury, or indeed with any other master-
piece of the middle ages. Built in the form of an archi-
episcopal cross, that is to say, with a double transept,
the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lincoln is composed
longitudinally of eighteen large bays, and is supported
by a multitude of pillars and smaller columns, a very
forest of marble and stone, forming a vista of marvellous
richness. 2

1 It may be remarked that the exquisitely beautiful "angel choir,"
which has replaced the apse in which the church terminated according to
the original plan, also owes its origin to St. Hugh, in this sense that it was
built to do honour to the shrine of the holy Bishop, when, in consequence
of the miracles wrought at his tomb, Lincoln, in the latter part of the
thirteenth century, became a great place of pilgrimage. [Eo.]

1 The author of the Vita Metrica, when describing the Cathedral of
Lincoln, poetically and symbolically, speaks of these columns thus :
Inde columnelhe, quae sic cinxere columnas,
Ut videantur ibi quamdam celebrare choream.
{Vita Metrica, vv. 882, 883.)

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 181

" Nothing in the churches of Great Britain," says
a competent author of our own days, " can surpass the
boldness and elegance of the central tower. The
designer's craft has brought into play all the resources
of ingenuity and art. The tower is square, having the
angles supported and at the same time decorated by
buttresses, surmounted with small steeples ; each face
is pierced with pointed windows, upon which has been
lavished the most delicate tracery. Finally the battle-
ments, which surmount the whole, are worked out in a
marvellous combination of rich mouldings and floriated
ornaments. The height of the whole is about 240 feet.
The central tower of St. Ouen, at Rouen, is the only
one we know which can compare advantageously with
that of Lincoln Cathedral. The two towers of the west
front are hardly less imposing." l

At some little distance are still to be seen the ruins
of the ancient episcopal palace, which was begun by
Bishop Robert of Chesney, continued by St. Hugh, to
whom is specially due the fine central hall, and finished
by Hugh of Wells. And as he looks from these crumb-
ling walls, covered with ivy, towards the towers of
the Cathedral, and then out upon the town and its
suburbs beneath, the Catholic visitor cannot help being
deeply moved at the thought of all the desolation, the
ruins heaped upon ruins, which have accumulated in
the Church of England since the religious convulsion of
the sixteenth century. When will the hour come for
that great restoration, which is so ardently longed for
by all who have at heart the true progress of the
Kingdom of God ? When will Our Lady of Lincoln be
once more the object of a loving and filial homage in
that church erected in her honour, and overflowing in
days gone by with the rich offerings there laid at her
feet ? When will the doors of the Cathedral open

1 L'Abb Bourass6, Les plus belles Eglises du monde, p. 353.

182 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

again to welcome a Catholic Bishop, true heir of the
faith and virtue of St. Hugh, and in communion with
the successors of St. Peter, who first sent apostles to
England ? When will the Roman Church again take
possession of this monument, built by her faithful sons,
and still bearing witness to the antiquity and immu-
tability of the Faith that was once delivered to the
saints ? When will a Pontifical High Mass, celebrated
once again as in the twelfth century, gather the faithful
together in this magnificent edifice, where every line
converges towards the altar, and where every sumptuous
detail invokes the presence of our Lord in the Blessed
Eucharist ? We cannot pray too much or too earnestly
for the dawn of that day of reparation and justice,
which will ensure the salvation of so many souls, and
fill with so true a joy the hearts of all faithful children
of the Church.

NOTB TO BOOK II. CHAPTER VI.

It is natural that the French author of the Life here
translated should look upon architectural questions
from the point of view common amongst his own
countryman, or rather amongst a section of his own
countrymen. In England, there is a very general
disposition to regard the extraordinary architectural
development which marked this period as of spontaneous
and native growth, and the substantial agreement with
our own native authorities of such an antiquary as
M. Viollet le Due, 1 is a proof that this theory has not
been taken up lightly, nor maintained merely in a

1 In a letter printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1861,
M. Viollet le Due says, amongst other things : ' ' After the most careful
examination I could not rind in any part of the cathedral of Lincoln,
neither in the general design, nor in any part of the system of architecture
adopted, nor in any details of ornament any trace of the French school of
the twelfth century (the lay school from 1170 to 1220), so plainly character-
istic of the cathedrals of Paris, Noyon, Senlis, Chartres, Sens, and even

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 183

spirit of national prejudice. On almost all hands it
is admitted that to St. Hugh, the Burgundian Bishop
of Lincoln, is due the credit of having led the way in
this great movement. But while his enlightenment
and energy gave the necessary stimulus to the erection
of the beautiful Cathedral of his see upon lines with
which neither England nor any part of Christendom
were yet familiar, there is every reason to believe that
both the architect, Geoffrey de Noiers, 1 and the work-
men whom he employed were Englishmen, and that the
distinctive beauties of the style which they inaugurated
in this country were not copied by them from abroad. I
may illustrate the view generally current in England
upon this subject by a quotation from a recent work
intended to be representative of the best modern
research.

" Our first purely national architecture," says Dr.
Hughes, "known to us as ' the Early English style,'
came into being in the reign of Richard I., and is the
one good thing which accrued to England under that
most execrable of all our monarchs. Its birth was
presided over by Hugh of Dauphine, Bishop of Lincoln,

Rouen. . . . The construction is English ; the profiles of the mouldings
are English ; the ornaments are English." In the same volume of the
Gentleman's Magazine will be found much information about the family
of the architect De Noiers.

1 Sir Gilbert Scott having, in the original draft of his Lectures on
Medieval Architecture, protested with regard to St. Hugh's work at
Lincoln : "If then a French architect was engaged here, he must not only
have made over the details of his work wholly to Englishmen, but have
studiously followed English forms in the general features ; " had occasion
subsequently to add a footnote: "This notion has since been entirely
disproved, and the architect proved to have been a member of an English
family." Again, he states : "The general distribution of the parts seems
to me English rather than French, and though the work displays some
idiosyncrasies, I do not see in them anything to indicate a French origin,
unless it be the capitals of the main pillars ; indeed, it is a work in which
distinctively English characteristics appear in a somewhat advanced stage
of development." (Vol. i. p. 196.)

184 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

commonly called St. Hugh of Burgundy. He died in
1200, and was buried behind the high altar in his un-
finished church. His work is remarkable in two ways :
first, because it is the first example of pure pointed
Gothic (of Gothic, that is, without the least tincture of
Romanesque) to be found in England, and not in
England alone, but in all Europe ; and secondly,
because though there is a youthful, we might say a
girlish delicacy about it, it is neither tentative nor
immature. All the true characteristics are present.
We have the clustered shafts, the elegant crockets (con-
ventional out-curled leaves), the pointed trefoil arch,
the narrow lancet-shaped windows, the stalked foliage
of the capitals. The history of the transition, of course,
makes it certain that it was in fact a case of evolution,
and not of sudden separate creation ; but the casual
looker-on would certainly be justified in thinking that
the Early English style, like Pallas from the head of
Zeus, sprang full-grown and full-armed from the brain
of the architects at Lincoln and Ely. This is true of
St. Hugh's choir at Lincoln, built in the last ten years
of the twelfth century, it is emphatically true of the
galilee of Ely, built in the first fifteen years of the
thirteenth century; than which no more perfect example
is to be found in the world." l

The antiquary, Mr. J. H. Parker, in a paper printed
in Archaologia, vol. xliii., on "The English Origin of
Gothic Architecture," relies mainly for his evidence
upon the fabric of the choir of Lincoln Cathedral and
its relation to the first building with which St. Hugh
was connected, the still existing "Church of the Friary"
of Witham. Again Professor Freeman declares :
"Before the twelfth century had run its course, the
fully developed pointed architecture had reached its
perfection not at the hands of a Frenchman at St.

1 Social England, vol. i. p. 327. Edited by II. D. Traill.

THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN. 185

Denis, but at the hands of the Saint whom imperial
Burgundy gave to England. What Diocletian did at
Spalato for the round arch, St. Hugh did at Lincoln
for the pointed arch." 1 Similarly, Sir Gilbert Scott,
in the Associated Architectural Societies Reports, vol. xii.,
describes St. Hugh as "one whom we properly asso-
ciate with one of the most mighty onward steps ever
taken in the architecture of our country," adding, that
" St. Hugh's great work may be supposed to have been
on the very crest of the wave of progress." 2 St. Hugh's
chief title to fame rests, it is true, upon higher grounds
than these, but it is well to point out that in his case,
as in so many others, personal holiness was no obstacle
to his becoming the benefactor of his country, and the
friend of all true progress and enlightenment.

It is worth while to point out that St. Hugh's con-
temporaries were quite alive to the boldness and
originality of the conceptions carried out in the building
of Lincoln Cathedral. " He began," says Ralph de
Coggeshall, " in honour of the Mother of God, a certain
new style of church after a graceful design (novam
quandam ecclesiam eleganti schemate), which seems to surpass
all the other cathedrals of England in a certain elegance
of its proportions (quadam structure elegantia), and this
he prophesied would be brought to completion either
in his lifetime or after his death." 3 The same well-
informed chronicler lets us know that the conjecture
hazarded above by the author of this Life as to the
construction of the building, is fully justified. " He
(St. Hugh) established some sort of gild in his bishopric
from which as much as a thousand marks were con-
tributed every year towards carrying on the work."

1 Norman Conquest, vol. v. p. 641. Cf. Sharpe in Associated Archi-
tectural Societies Reports, 1868.

2 Pp. 187-193.

3 Coggeshall (Rolls Series), p. ni. The chronicler was a contemporary.

186 THE CATHEDRAL OF LINCOLN.

Whether this gild is identical with the great gild of
St. Mary at Lincoln, the hall of which, though strangely
known by the name of John of Gaunt's stables, is still
standing, I am unable to state with certainty. This
much is clear, that shortly after Hugh's death the con-
tributions notably fell off, and that an effort was made
to put new life into the gild we learn from an interesting
document among the Patent Rolls, which King John
addressed to the people of the diocese of Lincoln : l

" The King to all in the Diocese of Lincoln greeting.
We give you manifold thanks for all the good deeds and
alms which you have contributed to the Church of
Lincoln for the construction of the new work. How
bountifully and how liberally you have given is shown
by the noble structure of that building. But how incon-
gruous it would be that such a noble work should be
left unfinished. And inasmuch as it needs your help
and aid, we beg of all of you, we admonish and exhort
you in the Lord, that, desirous to finish that which you
have well begun, ye would, under the Divine guidance,
and for the honour of the glorious Virgin, patroness of
the same church, and also for the love of us and at our
request, allow an assessment to be made among your-
selves of a contribution for the work of the said building,
and would form a society to last at least five years to
further that purpose. So that on account of the contri-
bution of aids and alms for building upon earth an
abode for so excellent a patroness, which you have
lovingly given, ye may be received by her Son our Lord
into the everlasting abodes. 2

1 Diocesan History of Lincoln. By Venables and Perry. Pp. 120, 121.
* Rotuli Lit. Pal. p. 57. (12011216) Edit. Hardy.

CHAPTER VII.

HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY.

WHILE building his Cathedral, the Bishop of Lincoln
did not forget the care of the spiritual edifice, of which
the material fabric was but the type ; he knew how
to apply to his people the words of St. Paul to the
Ephesians: "You are no more strangers and foreigners;
but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and the
domestics of God, built upon the foundation of the
Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief corner-stone ; in whom all the building, being
framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in
the Lord. In whom you also are built together into
an habitation of God in the Spirit." 1

To the Bishop, who is the representative of Jesus
Christ, and the successor of the Apostles, especially
belongs the part of architect to this living Church,
which is formed of the souls of those committed to his
care. He himself must cement the various elements
of which it is composed, by his labours and his prayers,
and if necessary, by his blood. Hugh well understood
this great truth, and not a day passed in which he did
not labour diligently for the sanctification of some
portion of his flock.

The grand functions belonging to his office supplied

the most frequent opportunity of benefiting the souls

of others. These duties he discharged with such

perfect dignity, such exactitude in every detail, such

1 Ephes. ii. 19 22.

i88 7//S EPISCOPAL MINISTRY.

fervour and piety, that his people were completely
fascinated, and to watch him at one of these ceremonies
had the same effect upon them as an eloquent sermon.
It is always interesting to see a Bishop pontificating ;
hut when the Bishop is a Saint as well, the pontifical
ceremonies gain a new meaning, and are invested with
a new grandeur; so that they bring a sort of sacramental
grace to the souls of those who assist at them. The
people who flocked together when St. Hugh officiated
enjoyed this privilege. They observed with admiration
that " neither the noise and restlessness of the crowd,
nor his many cares and anxieties, nor the occurrence
of any unforeseen accident, could ever deprive their
Bishop of his recollection, or hinder him from carrying
out exactly every detail of the ceremony." 1

They were astonished also to see how wonderfully
he supported the fatigue of the longest functions, such
as the consecration of churches, ordinations, and con-
firmations, although his constitution was delicate, and
weakened by his man)' austerities. In spite of the
violent internal pains, from which he often suffered,
and which were mainly caused, his physicians said,
by his frequent fasts on bread and water, he seemed
stronger than those around him. While his assistants
were frequently, not only tired, but utterly exhausted,
and obliged to relieve each other in their attendance
on the pontifical throne, the Bishop himself gave no
sign of fatigue, and went through the longest and most
trying ceremony without rest or relief. It often
happened to him to get up before sunrise and to spend
the whole day in these pontifical functions, not taking
any meal until nightfall.

One day he had been consecrating a church in very
bad weather. Twilight was coming on, and he was
just thinking of the rest and refreshment he so much

1 Magna Vita, bk. i. ch. 2.

HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY. 189

needed, when he saw a band of children approaching
to receive confirmation. Immediately, hunger and
fatigue were forgotten, the expostulations of his attend-
ants were silenced by a few gentle words, and he began
this fresh labour as if he had not another care in the
world. All the children were confirmed, although there
were so many of them, that night had fallen before the
ceremony was over. 1

He was as compassionate and careful of the health
of his clergy, as he was severe to himself, and often
insisted on their taking a little bread and wine, before
accompanying him to the consecration of a church, or
any other long ceremony, especially during the heat of
summer. Several ecclesiastics, after profiting by this
kind thoughtfulness, were scrupulous about touching the
chalice or the altar linen, during the offering of the
Holy Sacrifice. Hugh blamed them for their lack of
faith and common sense, and he complained that they
neither knew how to be obedient to their Bishop, nor
were capable of understanding why he was right in
giving the order. 2

1 Vita Metrica, 736 745.

2 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 13. In the Anglican Life of St. Hugh of
Lincoln written by Canon G. G. Perry, the author is guilty of the absurdity
of supposing that the Bishop gave a dispensation to his clergy to take their
breakfasts before saying Mass. Father Bridgett, C.SS.R. , in an article
published in the Dublin Review for April, 1880, to which reference has
previously been made, has exposed this blunder along with many other
misconceptions to be found in Canon Perry's book. The Magna Vita, to
which Canon Perry appeals, speaks of St. Hugh's dispensation given to
those qui ministrabant missarum solemnia celebranti, i.e., to the assistant
priests, deacons and servers, who "ministered to the celebrant" during the
long pontifical functions, and in fact one of the MSS. of the Magna
Vita, as if to render ambiguity impossible, gives the reading submin-
istrare. The only difficulty that can be felt about the passage would
take the form of the question : " If only the assistants are meant, why was
any dispensation necessary?" To this I answer that according to mediaeval
ideas not only the celebrant, but all who participated in any solemn function
or in the administration of a sacrament ought to be fasting out of reverence
for the rite they were engaged in. With regard to confirmation, e.g.,

igo HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY.

But it was especially on his journeys through his
diocese, to adminster the Sacrament of Confirmation,
that his inexhaustible goodness and patience were
manifested.

According to the custom of those days, it often
happened that he was stopped on the road by a crowd
of country people, who had come to ask him to confer
the Sacrament of Confirmation on themselves or on
their children. He would then immediately dismount
from his horse, and perform all the appointed cere-
monies with the greatest care and recollection, as if
he had been in the sanctuary of his Cathedral. Even
if he were ill, or fatigued, if the road was bad, the
weather inclement, and the hour late, he never hesitated
to get down from his horse and to observe with all due
reverence the form prescribed in his Pontifical. 1 Then
he would give his blessing to all around him, and after
offering up a special prayer for the sick who had been
brought there, filling their souls with joy and hope,
he would resume his journey amid the blessings of
all, to be stopped again ere long by just such another

the Council of Rouen (A.D. 1072. Labbe, ix. p. 1-125) required that both
administrant and recipient should be fasting. Indeed, it was the ordinary
rule that all who assisted at the principal Mass on Sundays or week-
days eat nothing beforehand. Any one who notes what has been said about
the lateness of the hour at which St. Hugh himself took his meals,
will see that he probably considered it necessary to defer his repast
until all pontifical functions, notably the administration of the Sacrament
of Confirmation, had been concluded. This was regarded as the
ordinary and more reverent practice, and in his own case St. Hugh
was strict in adhering to it. At the same time he knew that this was only
a counsel and not a matter of obligation, and he made no scruple about
insisting that others should treat themselves more leniently. The Saint
was not surprised that his deacons were reluctant to touch the chalice or
corporal when not fasting, but he rebuked them for their want of obedience
and their failure to see that such a rule might be dispensed with where
there was good and sufficient reason. [Eo.]

1 His contemporaries particularly remark on this circumstance, because
many other Bishops at that time were less considerate. (Magna Vita,
bk. iii. ch. 13.)

HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY. 191

group of petitioners who had come on a similar errand.
" A great number of cures," says his biographer, " were
the fruit of the Bishop's prayers and blessing. This
we have learned from eye-witnesses, whose veracity is
beyond a doubt." 1

One day, St. Hugh had just confirmed a number of
people, and was hastening to another church, where a
fresh throng of the faithful were awaiting him. An old
peasant who, however, was not entirely helpless, called
after him that he wished to be confirmed. The Bishop,
seeing that the church was only a very short distance
from where they were standing, told the old man to
come to the church and be confirmed with the rest, not
to keep the other candidates waiting. But the old man
did not at all see the matter in this light. He replied that
he would not and could not walk that short distance,
and when the Saint demurred, he sat down upon the
ground, lifted his arms and his eyes to Heaven, and
dared to call upon God to witness the wrong which His
Bishop was doing to his soul. St. Hugh was not
offended at this rudeness, but thought only of the
spiritual needs of the old man, who ought to have been
confirmed long years before. He yielded to his persist-
ence, stopped, turned back, and bestowed the favour so
strangely asked. 2

This little incident will serve to show how vexa-
tiously the zeal of this good pastor was sometimes tried,
and how much there was of merit in his efforts to
evangelize his flock. In some parts of his diocese, he
even found traces of idolatry among the ignorant
country people. They worshipped the fountains in
certain spots, 3 and indulged in other superstitious

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 13.

2 Vita Metrica, v. 746765 ; Girald, Vita S. Hugonis, i. ch. 3.

3 Especially at Berkhampstead and Wy combe. (Magna Vita, bk. v.
ch. 17.)

I 9 2 HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY.

practices. The holy Bishop made the most strenuous
efforts to put an end to such deplorable customs, but
it was long before he succeeded. We will give one
episode out of many which occurred to the Saint,
during this wearisome struggle. One day, as he was
passing through a village, a peasant took up a little
child in his arms, and ran after the Bishop. Thinking
that it was the usual case of administering confirmation,
St. Hugh stopped, dismounted, opened his box of holy
oils, put on his stole, and waited. No : the child had
been already confirmed ; but the father wished to have
his baptismal name changed, because he thought, that
if this were done, his son's destiny would also be
changed. At this unmistakable piece of paganism the
Bishop grew very indignant. " What is the name of
your child ? " he said. " John," answered the father.
"O gross folly!" exclaimed the holy man; "what
more beautiful name could you wish for your son ?
John, in Hebrew, signifies the Grace of God. What
do you wish him to be called ? Fork, I suppose, or
rake ? . . . You see what a dreadful state of mind your
request has thrown me into. I shall not let it pass
without giving you cause to remember it." And a
severe penance imposed upon the superstitious father
was the outcome of this episcopal admonition. 1

This severity could not be attributed to a want of
sympathy with the common people ; for Hugh was
never weary of showing his love and consideration for
them. He sent messengers to seek out the poor, in
order that he might be able to relieve their wants. He
regularly distributed among them a third of his revenues ;
not to speak of numberless gifts out of the ordinary
course and secret alms that were never heard of. In
his relations with the tenants of the Cathedral lands,

1 Vita Metrica, v. 765 793.

HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY. 193

he showed himself full of generosity, fearlessly renounc-
ing certain unjust dues which he found in existence,
and which weighed too heavily on his subjects.

A labourer on one of his estates had just died, and
according to custom, his principal chattel, in this case
an ox, became the property of the lord of the manor.
But the poor widow trusted to the goodness of her
Bishop : she came to him, weeping, and begged him
to allow her to keep the animal, which was of the
utmost importance to her to enable her to gain a liveli-
hood for herself and her children. Hugh instantly
granted her request, without thinking of the precedent
he was establishing. His bailiff, who happened to be
riding beside him, said to his master : " My lord, if
you thus renounce all your rights, you will ruin yourself,
and you will no longer be able to retain your land."
Thereupon, the Bishop got down from his horse, and
taking up a handful of earth, said to his companion,
" Here, you see, is plenty of land ; I can keep all this, and
yet leave the poor widow her ox. What is the use of
possessing so much of earth, and losing Heaven ? If
we rigorously exact the payment of the unjust debts
owing to us, we run the risk of ourselves becoming
bankrupts to God. Death has taken from this poor
widow her chief support, but he has not left her quite
without resources. Shall I be more cruel than death ?
No ! I will not take away what death has spared her."
The poor widow was overcome with gratitude for this
kindness, which was that of a father rather than a feudal
lord. 1

On another occasion, a knight, by the simple fact
of his death, had rendered his son liable for the payment
of a certain Relief. The Bishop exempted him from
the obligation, saying, " It was not just that the loss
of a father should entail the loss of such a sum of
i Vita Metrica, v. 793-813.

194 HIS EPISCOPAL MINISTRY.

money also one such trouble at a time was surely
quite enough." 1

Concessions like these were of more value even than
alms in teaching the people of Lincoln to look upon the
Bishop as their protector and friend. The truth of the
old adage was confirmed : " It is good to live under the
crozier."

St. Hugh was a worthy representative of his Divine
Master, who said: " I am the Good Shepherd; and I
know Mine, and Mine know Me." As the years went
on, the lapse of time did but increase the perfect con-
fidence and sympathy which subsisted between the
Bishop and his flock ; and as his influence grew greater,
he made use of it only to distribute to all in larger
measure the treasures of grace, which filled his holy
soul. He never gave a thought to self, but poured out
his energies without stint or stay, amply rewarded by
the conversions which he effected and by the change
which in due time crept over the face of his diocese.

Vita Metrica, v. 814 822.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

THE tender' heart of St. Hugh was open to all, but
there were some whom he loved with a special love,
and these were little children, and poor lepers. The
children represented to him his God in the manger at
Bethlehem ; the lepers, his God on the Cross of Calvary.
" The Guardian Angels of little children," a Bishop
of our own days has written, "have this great privilege,
that their external duties, instead of being a distraction
from their one essential occupation of beholding the
face of God, in some sense double the happiness they
derive from the beatific vision ; for, while they contem-
plate God Himself in the brightness of eternal light,
they see His image reflected in the pure souls of the
little ones committed to their care. The Angel Guardians
of older persons, on the other hand, are, alas ! too often
condemned to witness injustice, sin of every kind,
corruption of mind and heart, perversion of the will,
and manifold impurity in thought and action a sad
spectacle for those blessed spirits, whose only consola-
tion then is to turn their eyes to the immaculate
splendour of eternal beauty. But the Angels of little
children, wherever their gaze is directed, are confronted
by the same presence of the Eternal Father in all
alike. In our Lord's words, * their Angels always see
the face of My Father who is in Heaven.' " l

1 St. Matt, xviii. 10. Works of Cardinal Pie, vol. i. p. 516.

196 FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

As he was the guardian angel of all the souls in his
diocese, St. Hugh took a special delight in watching
over the souls of the little ones, dear to God beyond
the rest. The little children, in their baptismal inno-
cence, with their engaging candour, and their sweet,
pure looks, consoled him for the inevitable miseries
which he had every day to come in contact with, and to
cure. His intercourse with them, instead of being a
distraction from the holy contemplation which was to
him a foretaste of the Beatific Vision, refreshed his
mind and heart, and helped him to raise* his thoughts
towards those invisible heights which he never willingly
lost sight of.

One of his greatest pleasures was to confirm little
children. He would never allow his attendants to treat
them roughly, and those who paid no attention to his
wishes in this matter were severely reprimanded. 1
Whenever he met any of these little ones, he felt irre-
sistibly drawn to speak to them ; he loved to take them
in his arms, and had a most charming knack of winning
a smile and some half-formed words from the baby-lips
which had scarcely learned to speak. He traced the
sign of the Cross upon their foreheads, he prayed God
to bestow on them all good gifts, and sent them lovingly
away with his blessing.

The little children were not slow in responding to
the advances of their saintly friend. They felt at home
with him at once, and loved to get him to play with
them. Even children who were naturally shy and
timid, and always fled from the presence of strangers,
came readily to the Bishop, and would rather be with
him than with their own parents. His chaplain was a

1 St. Hugh was not content with mere rebuke. His chaplain tells us of
his lay attendant-, presumably the younger ones, that if they ill-treated the
children, the Bishop sometimes cuffed them soundly tcrribilitcr incrt-
fando nvntiMHifuam etiam coUiphizandv sci'crius cocrccl>ut. [

FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS. 197

witness of one of these charming scenes, and has
described it for us. He says : " I once saw myself a
little infant of six months old, whom the Bishop had
just confirmed, 1 manifest such joy in his presence, that
he might have been taken for another St. John the
Baptist, leaping with gladness. He laughed with such
real enjoyment and evident intention, that all were
astonished to hear such sounds from the little mouth,
which had hitherto only uttered the wailing cries of
babyhood. He stretched out his little arms, as though
he would fly away to Heaven altogether, and turned
his head from side to side, as if his joy were too great
for expression. The Saint's hands he clasped, and held
tightly within his own, putting them to his lips, and
unwilling to let them go. The Bishop charmed the
child, and the child charmed the Bishop, to the great
admiration of all present, who saw in both one and the
other the realization of,the Gospel promise: 'Blessed
are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' 2 And,
indeed, what else was it but God Himself that the
innocent little one perceived in the person of His
representative ? And what was it, in turn, which
so powerfully attracted the Bishop to the child,
if it were not the image of his God reflected in
the mirror of its pure, untainted soul ? Those who
witnessed this scene could never forget it, so
much impressed were they with its quite unusual
character. The Bishop presented fruits and dainties 3

1 It was a common practice in the early Church, and in the middle
ages, to administer Confirmation to infants and quite young children. The
question was even debated whether it was lawful to give Holy Communion
to any one who had not been confirmed. [Eo.]

2 St. Matt. v. 8.

3 If poma, the word used in the Magna Vita, means apples, it does not
seem altogether surprising that an infant six months old should have felt
no'particular attraction for this form of nourishment. It may be, however,
that St. Hugh offered them merely as playthings, and not as delicacies.
I ED.]

I 9 8 FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

to the child, who turned away his head, as if disgusted.
It was the friend, and not the gifts, that he loved ;
Hugh himself was quite sufficient for him. The nurse
who carried him in her arms then tried to caress him,
but he pushed her away, and fixed his eyes on the
Bishop, drumming with his hands, and crowing with
delight. They were obliged at last to carry the baby
away, and so put an end to this ovation, which occurred
at Newark Castle, a place then under the jurisdiction
of the Bishops of Lincoln, although it really belonged
to the diocese of York. The child was the son of quite
poor people, residing in a neighbouring town on the
other side of the River Trent." l

St. Hugh was so charmed with this incident, that
he turned to his attendants, and with characteristic
simplicity, began to tell them of a similar experience of
his on another occasion. " When I was Prior of
Witham," he said, " I went to^the Grande Chartreuse,
to be present at the General Chapter of the Order; 2 and
as the castle of Avalon, which belonged to my brother
William, was on my way, I stopped to pay him a visit.
There my youngest nephew was brought down to see
me quite a baby, who was not yet able to talk. The
same thing happened then, as has happened just now.
The nurse laid the infant down on my bed, and left me
alone with him. Then the dear little creature seemed
to beam all over and went into transports of delight,
which you would have thought impossible in one so
young." 3

The Bishop of Lincoln was not satisfied with these
passing interviews ; he chose several little children,

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 14.

a It seems probable that the Priors of Carthusian houses at a distance
only attended the General Chapters in leap years. This would enable us
to assign the incident recorded above either to 1180 or 1184, probably the
alter.

* Magna _Vita, bk. iii. ch. 14.

FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS. 199

whom he brought up in his palace, and afterwards
educated. He took care, however, not to treat them
with so much familiarity, when they had attained the
age of reason, and might have been spoilt by an exces-
sive display of affection. Nearly all these privileged
children embraced the ecclesiastical state, and were
provided with benefices by their protector. Two of their
number were especially remarkable for their precocious
intelligence : one was a little Norman, born at Caen,
and called Benedict ; the other was a French child,
born at Noyon, who was christened Robert.

Robert was about five or six years old, when he was
met at Senlis by Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, of
whom we shall have much to say later on. The Arch-
bishop was delighted with the charming prattle of the
bright little fellow, and thought it would give great
pleasure to St. Hugh, if he sent him to join his other
proteges. He obtained possession of the child for a
very small sum, 1 and brought him home to Lambeth.
The Bishop of Lincoln soon after arrived, to pay his
respects to his Metropolitan, and as soon as the little boy
saw him, he left the Archbishop, and ran joyfully into the
arms of him whom he henceforward regarded as a father.
St. Hugh, after keeping the child with him for some
time, sent him to be educated at Elstow.

As to the little Benedict, he had the happiness of
being found, some time before Robert, at Caen, probably
by St. Hugh himself, who kept him a long time in his
palace, until he was old enough to begin his studies, and
who afterwards provided for his maintenance. While
he was quite young, he was riding on the same horse
with Roger, Archdeacon of Leicester, and afterwards
Dean of the Chapter at Lincoln. Suddenly, the child
fell off the horse, into a deep and rapid river, which

1 " (Puer) aere comparatus exiguo in Angliam cum ipso perlatus a Galiis
est." (Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 14.)

200 FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

carried him a great distance. Through the intercession
of St. Hugh, he was taken out alive and unhurt, just as
the little Placidus was saved in days of old by the
prayers of St. Benedict. 1

There were other miracles besides this, which bore
witness to the Divine intervention in favour of the friend
of little children. A native of Alconbury, near
Huntingdon, was imprudent enough to leave a fragment
of a broken knife blade in the hands of his little son.
The child put it into his mouth, where it entered his
throat, and remained there, so that no food could
be swallowed, except in a liquid form. Half
suffocated, and in great pain, the poor boy seemed to
be at death's door, when the holy Bishop of Lincoln
happened to pass through the place. The unhappy
father, who blamed himself for all this anguish, came
with his weeping wife, to seek advice from the man of
God. For, according to the testimony of the mother,
a prophetic dream had announced to the uncle of the
child, that the poor little sufferer would be cured by the
Saint. " The Lord has sent you here," she added, ** on
purpose that you may restore life to our son, who is in
a dying state." Touched by the faith and sorrow of
these good people, Hugh blessed the throat of the child,
touched it, and breathed upon it. In a few moments,
the fragment of steel came away covered with blood,
and the poor boy's life was saved. 2

In the city of Lincoln, another mother obtained the
cure of her two sons, by appealing to the Bishop. One
of the children had a large tumour in the side, which
threatened to be fatal. The man of God touched the
wound, the tumour disappeared, and the child's health

1 Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. 14.

* Annul. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 80 ; Vita Metrica, v. 1064 1079. The
same miracle is mentioned in the Report of the Papal commissioners for
the canonization of St. Hiu;h.

FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS. 201

was perfectly restored. His brother being afterwards
seized with a dangerous illness, the mother brought
him, like the other, to get the Saint's blessing.
Three days after, this child also was completely
cured. 1

After learning these facts, we are not astonished to
hear of the general veneration shown to St. Hugh, even
during his lifetime, as the special patron and protector
of little children.

But, we may ask, how could one who had so tender
a love for innocent and beautiful childhood, give the
first place in his heart to the very outcasts of humanity,
the degraded and repulsive lepers ? On one side, the
freshest and sweetest flowers that earth produces ; on
the other, the most hideous of God's creatures, which
society, in horror, has banished from its midst ! It is
Christian charity alone which possesses the gift of
reconciling these two extremes, and of seeing in each
an image of the Divine Saviour, who was as lovely and
attractive, as He hung upon His Cross of pain, as
when in His infancy He lay cradled in His Mother's
arms.

This was the secret of St. Hugh's love for the
despised lepers. It was the thought of Him Who in
His Passion became "as it were a leper, and as one
struck by God and afflicted." The Saint's greatest
happiness was to bring thirteen of these poor creatures
into his own chamber, unknown to all his servants and
attendants. Then he would wash and wipe their feet,
kissing them with tender devotion. He set before them
a generous repast, and dismissed them with abundant
alms. There were several leper hospitals in his diocese ;
and without taking into account the large revenues
bestowed on these charitable institutions by his
predecessors, St. Hugh supported them by every means
1 Magna Vita, ubi supra; Annal. Cartus. loc. cit.

202 FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

in his power. 1 Often, accompanied by some of his
devout clergy, he would visit these asylums of misery.
Then, he would sit down in the midst of his dear lepers,
cheer them by his kind words, console them with a
gentleness that was almost maternal, and speak to those
disinherited ones of this world, of the eternal reward
which would recompense them for all their sufferings.
To these consolations he added much good advice, and
if necessary, reprimanded those who needed reproof.

Before the exhortations which he addressed to all the
lepers in common, the Bishop sent away the women for
a few moments, and then embraced each poor man
in turn, bowing to them first, and treating those most
affectionately who were the most disfigured by the cruel
disease. A little address full of delicate sympathy
followed these marks ot affection. " I congratulate you,"
he would say to them. " You are the flowers of Paradise ;
you are precious jewels in the crown of the King of
Heaven. Have confidence ; wait in peace for your
Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform
this ' body of your ignominy,' and make it like His own
glorious Body, while those who, refusing to take part in
His humiliations, have despised you, and been proud of
their beauty, will be severely judged."

When the man of God again found himself alone
with his intimate friends, he poured out his whole soul
to them, and spoke as one on fire, of the infinite
goodness of Jesus Christ, who, so many times in the
Gospel, has declared how blessed is the state of poverty
and suffering. He recalled to their remembrance how

1 This tender solicitude for poor lepers seems to have been traditional
in the Carthusian Order. To take but one instance, the leper-house of
Entresaix, in Savoy, was founded by Guigo, Prior of the Grande Chartreuse,
and it was tenderly loved by St. Anthelmus, General of the Carthusians, and
afterwards Bishop of Belley, who, as he had learned from the example of
Guigo, tended them with his own hands. (Cf. J. Le"tanche, Mtmotres de la
Socittt Savoisiennc d'Histoire, vol. xxx. p. 152.) L^ D< ]

FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS. 203

poor Lazarus was carried by angels into Abraham's
bosom, and how He, who was Himself the source of
all health and beauty, became infirm and afflicted in
order to heal our infirmities. l

One day, his chancellor, William, wishing to try his
humility, and also to furnish him with an opportunity of
declaring with what ardent faith he served Jesus Christ
Himself in the person of the lepers, said to him : " My
Lord, when St. Martin kissed the lepers, he healed them
by his touch." The Bishop replied immediately :
" Yes ; the kisses of St. Martin healed the bodies of the
lepers : but with me it is the other way, the kisses of the
lepers heal my sick soul." Could any reply have been
more touching in its simple humility? Could anything
express more clearly his sense of the presence of his
Divine Master in the suffering members of His mystical
Body ? If the soul of St. Hugh had in reality no need of
being cured by contact with the lepers, it was there
that it gained new strength and beauty, and it discerned
more clearly in these revolting specimens of humanity
the heavenly loveliness of a crucified God.

NOTE TO BOOK II. CHAPTER VIII.

On the south side of Lincoln, just beyond the old
Bargate, is a piece of ground long known as the
Malandry Fields (from maladrerie, a leper-house). Upon
this site formerly stood a hospital for lepers, dedicated
to the Holy Innocents. From sundry entries amongst
the Patent Rolls, it appears that it was considered to
have been founded by former kings of England, though
St. Remigius, the first Bishop of Lincoln, is alleged to
have originated the work ; in any case at the end of
the thirteenth century, the King kept the house under
his own immediate control. Some early charters are

1 Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 3.

204 FRIEND OP LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS.

printed in Dtigdale, and we learn from them that
Henry I. was a generous benefactor to this institution,
and that Henry II. confirmed his grants and added to
them a carucate of land in Norcote. When we
remember St. Hugh's devotion to the poor lepers and
his love of little children, it is impossible to doubt that
this particular hospital of the Holy Innocents, 1 which
was at no very great distance from the Cathedral, must
have been especially dear to him. It is at least a
curious coincidence that the author of the Magtia Vita,
in turning to the subject of St. Hugh's care for the
lepers, should introduce it without any apparent reason
by a reference to the praise which God had accorded
to him per ora innocentium, through the mouths of
innocents. We may safely conclude that this was one
of the " hospitals on certain of the Bishop's manors,"
of which his biographer speaks, and the revenues of
which he supplemented from his own purse. This
hospital of the Holy Innocents was endowed for the
reception and maintenance of ten leprous brethren
with a warden, and with two chaplains to say Mass
for King Henry I. and his family. The lepers were to
be ex ejectis' 2 of the city of Lincoln. Amongst the

1 It was opposite to the Gilbertine Priory of St. Catherine's, mentioned
above on p. 139, immediately outside the south gate of the city. The
Bishop's palace, the great hall of which was begun by St. Hugh, was close
to the Cathedral. After being allowed to fall into a ruinous state, in which it
remained for two hundred years, a new building has recently been erected
on the old site, and the present Bishop of Lincoln has taken up his abode
there.

2 Lepers in the middle ages were treated very much in the same fashion
as lepers amongst the Jews under the Mosaic dispensation. They were
thrust out from the society of their fellows, and in many parts of Europe
a special ritual was provided, corresponding in its main features to the
ritual for the burial of the dead, which was read over them in church when
they had been pronounced to be infected by the terrible disease. Although
leprosy was common enough in Western Europe before the crusades
(Cf. G. Kurth, Lit I.epre en Occident <ir<int Us Croisades), there can be
little doubt that this awful scourge was considerably increased and pro-

FRIEND OF LITTLE CHILDREN AND LEPERS. 205

Harleian charters in the British Museum, is one
belonging to the time of St. Hugh and witnessed by
William de Monte, his chancellor. It is an agreement
between the hospital and the Prior and convent of
Bulington, determining the payment of certain small
sums. 1 To this is attached a very fair impression of
the seal of the hospital, on which is depicted a leper
holding out his right hand for alms, and apparently
supported on crutches. Only a very few years later
King John issued letters patent dated April 24th, 1205,
taking the domum leprosorum at Lincoln under his special
protection, and enjoining that " when the brethren or
the clergy preached in their behalf and solicited the
alms of the faithful for their needs, no one should
harass, hinder, or molest such preachers." 2 In the
next century the hospital of the Holy Innocents would
seem to have fallen upon evil days, and its revenues, I
fear, were misappropriated. In the end it was placed
under the direction of the Knights Hospitallers of
Bruton Lepers. 3 [ED.]

pagated by intercourse with the East. Attention was directed to the
spread of leprosy at the third Council of Lateran (1179) where one of the
most prominent English representatives was Reginald of Bath, the same
Bishop who brought St. Hugh to England, probably on his way back
from the Council. The 2yd of the decrees (Mansi, Concilia, vol. xxii.
p. 230), passed by the Fathers, requires that lepers are to have a church,
cemetery, and chaplain of their own, while another document in the
Appendix to the same, speaks of the general custom of separating those
infected with leprosy from intercourse with their fellow-men and trans-
porting them to solitary places. (Ibid. p. 394.) On the other hand the
Christian charity of the middle ages seems to have responded nobly to
the call made upon it. We know from the will of Louis VIII. in 1225,
that there were at least two thousand leper hospitals in France, and in
England there were five such houses in Norwich alone. At Lincoln we
know of another Lazar House, called St. Leonard's, to the north-west of
the city, and possibly of a third in the hospital dedicated to St. Giles.

1 Cart. Harl. 44, A. 29.

2 Rotuli Litlerar. Patent. Edit. Hardy (12011216), p. 54.

3 Cf. an article on this subject in the Papers of tke Lincoln skire Tofo-
grafhical Society, pp. 29 49.

CHAPTER IX.
HIS CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

WHEN God commands us to respect the rights of our
neighbour, He makes no distinction between the living
and the dead ; He intends that we shall execute the
last wishes of those whom we have lost, and say nothing
against their reputation, exactly as if they were still
living in the midst of us. The precept of fraternal
charity extends, therefore, to the dead, and the Church
most carefully expresses this in her Offices, and especially
in those which have to do with the rites of Christian
burial. It was in these ceremonies especially that the
holy Bishop found the opportunity to show his charity
towards the souls of the departed. He loved to
expatiate upon the deep significance of the funeral rites
appointed by the Church, and to defend his practice
of always assisting at them whenever it was possible.
On this subject he used to say : " Among the number-
less proofs which God has given of His love for man,
we ought specially to notice what He does for each one
of us before our birth and after our death. Before a
man comes into the world, God the Son has died for
him, God the Father has freely surrendered His Son
to death, and God the Holy Ghost has come down to
fill him with manifold graces. There are sacraments
already instituted for the purification, the strengthening,
and the nourishment of his soul. There is the Church
to guide and instruct him. Not one thing is wanting for

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 207

his salvation and sanctification. When the hour of his
death arrives, when his dearest friends fly from his
remains, when his parents and his children hasten to
bear him away from his former home, it is then that
God in His fatherly tenderness comes to his relief and
lavishes upon him marks of loving forethought. He
sends His angels to receive the soul which is returning
to its Creator ; and to His priests, His representatives
on earth, He commits the care of the lifeless body, that
it may receive Christian burial."

The holy Bishop, if we may trust the author of the
Magna Vita, used further to encourage his clergy in this
matter, by bidding them imagine that Almighty God
was exhorting them in some such words as these :

" See, O My priests, you who stand in the sanctuary
in My place to entertain My guests, see this creature
who is the work of My hands. I have always loved
him, for his sake I have not hesitated to sacrifice My
only Son, who has made him partaker in His merits
and in His death. And now this man has become as
a grievous burthen to his friends and kinsfolk. They
have cast him off and driven him from their midst.
Come then, bestir yourselves to welcome the poor
outcast who has no other refuge but with Me. Take
with you to meet him the image of My Son, who was
crucified to save him ; do not forget the candles and
the sweet-scented incense ; have the church bells
solemnly tolled, open wide the doors, conduct him
with honour into the interior of My house : not far
from the altar where lies enshrined the Body of My
Son, 1 there place your dead brother's mortal remains ;
in view of his triumph cover the bier on which he lies

1 Nee longius ab ara Filii met corpus continente deponite. It is not
quite clear whether the reference is to the Blessed Sacrament reserved
above the altar, or to that which was sometimes buried in the altar in lieu
of relics. [ED.]

2o8 CHARITY I' OR THE DEAD.

with a precious pall, surround him with lamps and
torches, and let a numerous assembly throng around
him. By the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the
Eucharist, make ready a delicious banquet for the soul
still panting after its conflict with the powers of evil,
in order that the spirit may find rest and refreshment,
and in order that the empty tenement of clay may go
back amid benedictions to the bosom of its mother
earth. So at the last day shall it be worthily mated
again to the glorious spirit that gave it life, and be
renewed with the spring-tide of eternal youth."

From this exalted standpoint we can understand
something of the attraction which the Bishop of Lincoln
found in the funeral ceremonies, which are so often
performed mechanically, and without devotion. He never
declined the honour of officiating, or assisting at them ;
on the contrary, he persistently sought out every oppor-
tunity of attending a funeral service, often at the cost
of his night's rest, and sometimes at the risk of failing
in other duties of courtesy, which most people would
have considered imperative.

The priests of his diocese had received strict orders
from him, never to inter any one, especially an adult
person, without acquainting him of it, if he happened
to be anywhere in the neighbourhood. He preferred
to conduct the service himself, and never dispensed
himself from this unless hindered by some grave
impediment. He used to say, that if a person had led
a good life, he deserved this mark of charity and
respect ; and that if his life had not been good, he
had all the more need of prayers. Therefore, he put
himself at the disposition of all, and when the funeral
was that of a very poor person, he instructed his
almoner to furnish the lights, and to defray the other
expenses of burial. When he was on a journey, if he
met a funeral procession, he instantly dismounted,

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 209

knelt down beside the coffin, and began to pray. If
he had not a book written in large characters, such as
his defective sight required towards the end of his life,
he would stand beside the priest, reciting the Psalms
with him, and making the responses like a simple clerk.
If he had a suitable book at hand, he took upon
himself the duties of celebrant, entoned the prayers,
sprinkled holy water, incensed the coffin, cast earth
upon it, and in fact performed every detail of the rite
then in use with the greatest attention. It was only
when the whole service was concluded that he gave his
blessing to the bystanders, and proceeded on his journey.

When he was making his visitation in any of the
larger towns, it often happened at the conclusion of
one funeral that messengers came to inform him of
several others which were to take place the same day.
He was rarely satisfied unless he went to the different
churches mentioned, and rendered to each dead person
the same charitable office. He passed in fact from
one to the other until he had exhausted the list of
these solemn invitations, cheerfully neglecting invitations
of another kind. In vain did the noble lords and
gentlemen who had asked him to their table, or whom
he had invited as his own guests, in vain did they
complain of the Bishop's endless delay. Nothing could
equal the importance of this sacred duty in his eyes,
and no one ever took more to heart that maxim of
Holy Scripture : " It is better to go to the house of
mourning, than to the house of feasting." x

One day, Henry II. was expecting him to dinner.
But before presenting himself at the Palace, Hugh had
a mind to officiate at all the funerals which were going
on, not considering that the King was hungry, and was
being kept waiting with all his Court. Some of the
royal servants came to remind the Bishop that the

1 Eccles. vii. 3.
O

210 CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

King was getting impatient, and that it was long past
the dinner-hour. Without showing the least concern,
St. Hugh quietly went on with the service, merely
replying: " It is not necessary for the King to wait for
me ; for heaven's sake, let him sit down at once and
take his dinner in the name of the Lord." And he
afterwards explained his conduct to his clergy and
attendants by saying : " It is better to let an earthly
king dine without us, than to pay no heed to the
invitation of the King of kings."

Some years afterwards, he behaved in exactly the
same way to Richard Cceur-de-Lion, in the city of
Rouen. 1 And here we may take the liberty of antici-
pating a little the chronological order of events, in order
to group together several incidents which have to do
with the subject now under discussion.

During one of his last journeys to Normandy, the
Saint was walking in the vicinity of the town of
Argentau, when he observed, near the wayside, that
the soil had been disturbed, so that it had the appear-
ance of a newly-made grave. Surprised and distressed,
he sought information from some labourers who were
at work near the place. They told him that it was
indeed the grave of a poor beggar, who had died in a
neighbouring cabin, and who had been so utterly
destitute, that he had been put into the ground just
where he lay, instead of being taken to the churchyard.
St. Hugh, deeply concerned, drew a long sigh ; then,
taking out his book, he began to recite the burial
service for this poor man, with intense devotion.
Thus did he endeavour to repair the culpable negli
gence of the priest of the parish, not forgetting after-
wards to denounce the careless pastor to his own
Bishop, and demand his punishment.

1 From the account of Giraldus Cambrensis (i. ch. 6), it would appear
that the former episode took place at Le

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 211

The city of Lincoln was of course the privileged
theatre of many of these acts of charity towards the
dead. One evening in Lent, Hugh arrived at his
palace after the hour of None. It was time to break
his fast, and his dinner was waiting for him, when
some one came with the news that two funerals were
about to take place. Without a moment's hesitation,
the Bishop went off to officiate at both in succession,
taking no refreshment for his body, until he had thus
satisfied the hunger of his soul. Another time, in the
same city, on the morning after Christmas day, St. Hugh
had just finished celebrating Mass in honour of St.
Stephen, when he saw coming towards him one of the
workmen employed in building the Cathedral. With
the confidence which the holy Bishop's kindness always
inspired, the mason told him that his brother had died
the night before, and begged for the dead man the
" pontifical absolution," and some special prayers.
This request was immediately granted, and then the
Bishop asked if the funeral had already taken place.
The mason replied that the body was lying still
unburied, in a church a long distance off. The Bishop
ordered horses to be saddled immediately, and set out
with his chaplain and two servants. Arriving at the
place indicated, he performed all the ceremonies with
his usual devotion. But his task was not over ; he
received notice of several other funerals, no less than
five, according to the account of his biographer, and
he was determined to be present at all of them. He
had, nevertheless, been invited to dine on that day with
the archdeacon of Bedford, to meet a large number
of clergy. The hour of dinner was already past.
Some one ventured to suggest to him that he ought
not to keep the guests waiting any longer. The
relatives themselves of the dead man, who was still
to be buried, joined their entreaties to those of his

212 CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

servants ; they begged him to be contented with giving
the pontifical absolution, and commending the soul of
their dear one to God in his prayers. But St. Hugh
imposed silence on all, by saying: "Have you then
forgotten the words of our Lord : My meat is to do
the will of Him that sent Me?" 1 Without another
word, he imitated once more the admirable Tobias,
and left his meal in order to care for the dead, to the
great edification and consolation of the family whose
grief he shared.

On three separate occasions, this wonderful charity
of St. Hugh received a visible reward from Heaven.
Once, when he had come to London, to take part in a
meeting of prelates and nobles, it happened that one
of the Abbots who had been summoned thither died
suddenly on the eve of the opening of the Conference. 2
Hugh only knew this Abbot very slightly, but he was
none the less moved by his sudden death, devoutly
recommended his soul to God, and of course asked
when and where the funeral was to take place. He
learned that it was to be on the next day, at the Church
of St. Saviour in Bermondsey, but that none of the
prelates were expected to be present, not even those
who were most intimate with the deceased. No one,
in fact, wished or dared to be absent from the solemn
opening of the assembly. " Now, God forbid ! "
exclaimed our Saint, " that this Abbot should be thus
abandoned by all the prelates assembled in this great
city ! We will not treat one of our brothers in this
way, for no one would wish to be thus tivuti-d himself."
He therefore charged some of his people to make his

1 St. John iv. 34.

* Mr. Dimock is probably right in identifying this prelate with Simon,
Abbot of Pershore, who died at Brrmomlsry on the latli of May, 1198.
We have no record, however, ol any meeting of nobles and prelates at that
date. [ED.]

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 213

excuses to the assembly, and set off for Bermondsey.
An unexpected incident rendered his devotion more
memorable. On account of the extreme heat of the
summer, and the nature of the malady of which the
Abbot had died, the corpse was in such an advanced
state of decomposition, as to be almost unendurable
to those around the coffin. It was only by the use
of perfumes and other expedients that they could bring
themselves to remain in the vicinity. The holy Bishop
alone, whose sense of smell, nevertheless, was excep-
tionally acute, gave no sign of suffering any incon-
venience. Without taking precautions of any sort,
he came and went about the infected spot as the order
of the ceremonies required, "just," says his biographer,
" as a mother walks round and round the cradle of her
sleeping child." When he returned home, some of his
friends, fearing lest he might have taken some harm from
the tainted atmosphere, asked him if he felt quite well.
He was astonished at their questions ; he had observed
nothing in the least disagreeable, and thought that
they must have been mistaken. His soul had been
so raised above earthly things, that all impressions
of sense had been lost in those of devotion. 1

Another extraordinary favour bore witness to his
sanctity, on the occasion of the death of his almoner,
who belonged to the Order of the Knights Templars,
and was called Brother Morinus. He had been a
worthy imitator of the virtues of his master, and was
distinguished for his great charity and prudence in
distributing the alms confided to him. Besides
providing everything that was necessary for the
interment of the poor, it was part of his duty to give
the Bishop notice of any funerals which were about to
take place. If he neglected to do so he had to do
penance for his fault, by fasting on bread and water.

1 Mana Vita t bk. v. ch. 2.

2i 4 CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

This Brother Morinus had fallen ill when the Bishop
was at his manor of Stowe. Hugh administered the
last sacraments to him with his own hands, and then
was obliged to take his departure for Sleaford, a place
about twenty miles off.

Some days afterwards, when still at Sleaford, the man
of God had a dream, in which he seemed to be in the cell
of his dying friend, and observed a white dove, which
flew from one side to the other, seeking a place of
egress. When he awoke, he immediately gave orders
that horses should be prepared, to go and meet the
coffin of Brother Morinus, which he knew would be
taken from Stowe to Bruer, where there was a house of
the Order of Knights Templars. Then he began,
with his clergy, to recite the office of Prime, when
suddenly a messenger arrived, with the news of the
death of the almoner, which had occurred in the middle
of the night. Hugh then related the vision, which had
already made known to him what had occurred. The
funeral took place that day in the place he had foreseen,
and St. Hugh was in time to be present at it. l

A third incident may be added to the two preceding.
In the neighbourhood of Buckingham, a man who had
recently died, began to appear in a terrible form, for
several consecutive nights, first to his wife, then to his
brothers, and afterwards to his friends and neighbours.
Those whom he thus tormented, in their terror applied
to one of the archdeacons of St. Hugh, named Stephen,
who was then at Buckingham, and was the principal
ecclesiastical official of the district. The archdeacon
wrote at once to his Bishop, then in London, asking
what was to be done. St. Hugh took advice, and was
told by those whom he consulted, that this kind of
apparition was not uncommon in England, and that the
only way to put a stop to it, was to take up the body of
1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 18 ; Vita Metrica, v. 900.

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 215

the dead man and burn it. St. Hugh thought this
proceeding very wrong, and contrary to the respect
which ought always be shown to the mortal remains of
a Christian. He gave other instructions to his arch-
deacon, who, in accordance with his directions, had the
grave opened, and finding that the body remained in
the state in which it had been when buried, laid upon
its breast a form of absolution which the man of God
had written with his own hand. He then closed the
tornb again, and from that hour, the apparitions ceased. 1
A few lines written by the Bishop of Lincoln, had given
rest to the troubled spirit, and peace to his family.

All these facts are attested by contemporary wit-
nesses ; and later on, we shall have to add others
which shed glory on the funeral obsequies of the holy
Bishop, and upon his tomb. After his death, even more
than during his lifetime, it pleased God to reward by
singular marks of favour the charity of His servant
towards the faithful departed.

1 This story, which is not found in the Magna Vita, is narrated by
William of Newburgh (vol. ii. p. 425), in connection with a number of
other portents which marked the year of calamity, 1196. The remedy of
exhuming the body and burning it would seem to have been a superstition
then widely prevalent in England, for in each of the three other similar
ghost stories which he relates, the ghost is laid by reducing the body to
, ashes. The point of the chronicler's telling us that the corpse was found
in the same state as when committed to the earth, seems to be this : it was
supposed that until the censures of the Church were removed, the body
could not be reduced to dust, and until the corpse was resolved into its
elements, the devil might enter into it and use it for his evil ends. It was
to effect this resolution that fire was employed. The details of the story
related above were communicated to William of Newburgh by Archdeacon
Stephen himself. But see further the note at the end of the chapter. [Eo.]

216 CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

NOTE TO BOOK II. CHAPTER IX.

The form of this "absolution" will probably have
been analogous to that which was written by Peter the
Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, and suspended over the
grave of the famous Abelard, at the request of Heloise,
to whose care Abelard's remains had been committed.
The document, which was duly sealed, ran in these
terms: "Ego Petrus Cluniacensis qui Petrum Abailar-
dum in monachum Cluniacensem suscepi, et corpus
ejus furtim delatum, Heloisae abbatissae et monialibus
Paraded concessi, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei et
omnium sanctorum absolve eum pro officio ab omnibus
peccatis suis." 1 In this case it is quite plain that there
can have been no thought of supplying the place of
sacramental absolution. Abelard had spent a long
period in rigorous penance, he had received the Holy
Viaticum and had died in the arms of his brethren.
The absolution thus written and sealed was merely a
sort of formal discharge from obligations or censures
in foro externo, the removal of which might have its
effect in remitting temporal punishment incurred during
life, and so opening the way for the deceased to the
enjoyment of the vision of God. As an illustration of this
point of view, I may refer to a curious story related by
the monastic chroniclers of the Welsh King, Rhys, who
had laid violent hands upon one of St. Hugh's colleagues
on the episcopal bench, Peter de Leia, Bishop of St.
David's. Peter having providentially escaped from the
clutches of his captor, summoned his clergy and solemnly
excommunicated Rhys and the princes, his sons.
Shortly afterwards, in 1197, the King died, and his
sons, after a few days, determined to address themselves
to the Bishop for absolution and reconciliation. Peter

J Mart6ne, De Antiqms Ecclesicr Kitibus, vol. ii. p. 375.

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 217

de Leia, with the assent and authority of the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, granted their petition, but only
on this condition, that, like Henry II. at the tomb of
St. Thomas and like the Grand Forester mentioned on
a previous page, they should submit to a public flagel-
lation. The corpse of the dead King, jam foetidwn, says
the chronicler, likewise received a scourging, presu-
mably a mere formal one, and then absolution was
pronounced over living and dead together. 1

The same belief in the power of the Church's
censures to reach even beyond the tomb is manifested
in a still more curious story told of St. Augustine, the
Apostle of England, in the chronicle which goes by the
name of John Brompton. At Compton, in Oxfordshire,
he is said, while celebrating Mass, to have bidden all
excommunicated persons leave the church, whereupon
there rose from the floor the corpse of a man that was
buried there, which went forth and waited outside the
porch till the Mass was over. St. Augustine then came
out, and asked the man who had excommunicated him.
He replied that he had been excommunicated by a
priest lying there in the churchyard. St. Augustine
thereupon, after bidding him indicate the spot, disin-
terred the bones of the priest, and raised him to life.
Then, at the Saint's instance the priest, "taking a
scourge into his hand," released the dead man from his
excommunication. The corpse, thus absolved, went
back to its tomb within the church, and at once was
reduced to dust. This is interesting, not of course as
evidence of the practice of the days of St. Augustine,
but as illustrating the popular beliefs of the age in
which the legend grew up. There is, however, some-
thing very much like a. post-mortem absolution in the Life
of St. Gregory the Great. 2

1 Annales de Winton, p. 66.

2 Vita, by John the Deacon, bk. ii. n. 45, and Dialog, bk. iv. ch. 55.

2i8 CHARITY FOR THE DEAD.

In the Greek Church, the efficacy of absolution after
death was strongly insisted upon. Goar 1 was solemnly
assured by many learned bishops and ecclesiastics of
that communion, that the bodies of those who died
under excommunication always swelled up, and would
not fall into dust until the excommunication was
removed. They even had a special name for such
corpses. They called them rv/xTravtKa, swollen like drums.
And here also it would seem that the devil was believed
to wander abroad in these bodies until the curse
was taken off them. The form for conferring such
absolution is given by Goar, and the rubric declares
that it should be written by the Bishop on paper (ypdtyfi
ravra 6 dp^upeus eis ^aprtW), and that it should be read
over the remains either by himself or some other priest
whom he deputed. .1 may translate here the formula
which he prints :

" It has befallen our humility to launch an excom-
munication against the most devout N., on account of a
certain misdemeanour such as human nature, through
diabolical instigation, is occasionally liable to. But since
in some manner known to God, who knows all things
before they come to pass, this person has paid the
common debt of nature, while still involved in the
tempest of our anathema, we by this present favour
release him in the Holy Ghost from our former excom-
munication, so that henceforth, being free, he may
enjoy with all Christians the vision of the Lord, and
may hear His blessed and glorious summons, along
with the Blessed of His Father."

The pronouncing of an absolution in for o externo after
death is expressly provided for in the Corpus Juris
Canonici, cap. A nobis. 2 There was also sometimes ques-

1 Euchologium, p. 668.

a Decretalia Gregor. IX. bk. v. tit. 39, cap. 28. This is a reply
delivered by Innocent III., and dated 1199.

CHARITY FOR THE DEAD. 219

tion of an Indulgence granted with the absolution. See,
for instance, the post-mortem absolution and Indulgence
petitioned for by Duchess Bona of Savoy, the widow of
Galeazzo Sforza, as to the details of which the reader
maybe referred to an article in the Month for June, 1895. l
As is shown, however, by the case of Abelard first
mentioned, the post-mortem absolutions were certainly
not confined to those who died under the censures of the
Church. It seems to have been a common custom in
countries under Anglo-Norman rule during the eleventh
and twelfth centuries, to place a formula of absolution
upon the breast of the corpse. For this purpose a
piece of thin sheet lead, cut into the shape of a cross,
was sometimes used, and the form of absolution en-
graved upon it with a style. A certain number of these
" absolution crosses " have been found in modern times.
One of the most famous is that of Bishop Godfrey of
Chichester, who died in 1088, which I reproduce. 2 [ED.]

Absolvimus te Gode-
fride Episcope, vice
Sci Petri principis
Apostol., cui Dnus dedit
ligandi ataque solvendi
potestatem, ut quantum tua expetit
excusatio et ad nos pertinet remissio, sit
tibi Dnus Redemptor Omnipot. salus, omnium
peccatorum tuorum pius indultor. Amen,
vii Kl. octobris in festivitate S'ci
Firmini Epci. et Mart.

Obiit Gode-
fridus Epis.
Cicestren-
sis ipso die.
V lunae fuit.

1 The documents are in Pasolini, Vita di Caterina Sforza, Appendix.

2 See Archaologia, vol. xxiii. p. 419. For other absolution crosses, see
Archceologia, vol. xxxv. p. 298 ; vol. xxxvi. p. 258 (with engraving) ;
vol. xxxvii. p. 399 ; Norfolk Archaeology, vol. xi. (1892).

CHAPTER X.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

THE great activity of St. Hugh in his diocese was no
hindrance to his care for his own perfection. Torn
against his will from the life of the cloister, he still
tried to live as much like a monk as his episcopal
duties would permit. As he had shown on the day he
left Witham, with his bundle of sheep-skins in front
of him, he determined to remain a Carthusian, even
though he was forced to be a Bishop as well.

With the exception of the robes of ceremony which
he wore in public as a sign of his dignity, he retained
the white habit of his Order, and never put off the
Carthusian hair-shirt. His perpetual recollection alone
would have marked him out as a son of solitude. The
moment it ceased to be necessary for him to give his
attention to external matters, he took refuge in that
inner cell which he had built in the depths of his soul
by prayer and meditation. On his journeys, especially,
he kept such custody of the eyes that he saw nothing
beyond the horse that carried him. Like St. Bernard,
who rode for a whole day by the side of a lake, without
perceiving it, our Saint never gave any satisfaction to
his natural curiosity, and paid no heed to anything he
met with on the way. If his attendants wanted him to
notice anything, they had to draw his attention specially
to it. It was even necessary for some one to ride in
front of him, in order that the Bishop's horse might

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 221

take the right road ; and if it had not- been for this
precaution, he would constantly have lost his way.
Sometimes another traveller happened to come between
him and his leader, and then if his horse chose to
follow the new-comer, the Bishop remained perfectly
unconscious of the substitution, until his proper guide,
who had perhaps been distracted for a few moments,
perceived the misadventure, and galloped after his
master, grumbling and exclaiming: "Mercy on me !
They have stolen my Bishop again ! " 1 And he would
find the holy man deep in contemplation, knowing
nothing of what had occurred, and as completely
abstracted from earthly things, as if he had been
wandering in the desert of the Grande Chartreuse or in
the forests of Witham. It was the same when he was
residing in the country, at one of his manor houses.
He never took a walk from mere curiosity or for
pleasure, not even under the pretext of looking round
his estates, but he remained at home, reading, praying,
or engaged in business.

To this spirit of solitude, he added a great fidelity
in carrying out all the pious practices of his Order.
Thus, unless he was prevented, he regularly said a
Votive Mass every Saturday, in honour of the Blessed
Virgin; 2 always went to confession on that day, and

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 17.

2 In the beginning of the Carthusian Order, it was not usual for all the
priests amongst them to celebrate Mass daily, as we have already seen,
p. 123, but furthermore, there were a certain number of days in the year
when no Mass was offered at all, e.g., on the Saturday before the first
Sunday in Lent and the Saturday before Palm Sunday. It is noteworthy
that whereas in the Constitutions of Guigo, written before 1137, we are
told with regard to the former day, Sabbatum sequens missa caret ; the
Antiqua Statuta, drawn up in the next century, modify this by saying,
Missa propria caret, et cantatur missa de B. Maria in conventu. That
Mass was more frequently omitted on Saturdays seems perhaps to be due
to the fact that this day was assigned as the confession day for the monks.
(Statuta Guigoni$t cap. 7.)

222 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

sometimes oftener. He had so distributed the Lessons of
the Office and the reading at table, as to go completely
through the Bible every year, with the exception of the
four Gospels, which he caused to be read after Prime.
He was careful, also, that during the recitation of the
Divine Office, half the officiating clergy should stand,
while the other half sat down to rest, and he himself
always conformed to this practice, out of respect, as
he said, "to the presence of God and the holy angels;" 1
and all this with a regularity and gravity worthy of
the most fervent Religious. Whenever the hour for the
Divine Office arrived, he at once left off any occupation
in which he was engaged, and hastened to sing the
praises of God. He would not suffer any irreverence or
negligence in the performance of this duty, and any
of his priests who offended in this respect, received
severe reprimands. Every day he read a portion of the
Gospels a practice which he never omitted, even
though it had to be carried out on horseback as he
rode from place to place. In short, he continued to
practise, as nearly as possible, the same exercises of
piety as had nourished his soul in religion, and which
he found equally necessary to sustain him amid the
cares of his pastoral charge.

He was no less faithful to the old penances and
mortifications, although he knew how to accommodate
them to his new duties, with that wise discretion which
was also the result of his monastic education. He
continued his abstinence from flesh meat, but in con-
sideration of his weakness, and the exhausting work he
had to get through, as well as to show a courteous
condescension to his guests, he often eat fish, and
occasionally drank a little wine. During his repasts,
some one read aloud to him, as if he had still been in

1 Mii^H a Vita, bk. v. ch. 16. On this point see the note at the end of
the chapter.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 223

a Carthusian monastery, either the Holy Scriptures,
or the Acts of the Martyrs, the Lives of the Saints, or
some of the homilies of the Fathers of the Church.
When the time came for recreation, he broke silence,
and showed himself full of cheerfulness and affability,
without ever forgetting what was due to his position.
" Let us rejoice as the saints rejoice," 1 he would say to
his companions, and he himself set the example of that
sweet and serene joy which belongs to pure souls alone.
On certain extraordinary days, when he had to take
part in more noisy festivals, it was observed that he
took special precautions to keep himself recollected, as
a true Religious should always do. When, as was the
custom at that time, the banquet was enlivened by
the performance of minstrels, the good Bishop hardly
ever raised his eyes from the table, and his grave and
holy thoughts could be read in the expression of his
face. As soon as the meal was over, he rose immedi-
ately, and withdrew to his own apartments with the
chief guests, charming and edifying them by his con-
versation. His hospitality was renowned throughout
the diocese, and when on a journey he always invited
the parish priest of any place he was visiting, to his
own table. " We must remember," he used to say to
his major-domo, " the text of Holy Scripture : * And
the levite that is within thy gates beware thou forsake
him not.' " A perfect simplicity, which was in con-
formity with the spirit of the Gospel and the customs
of his Order, preserved him from all affectation of
austerity, and gave a great charm to his society. He
knew how to make himself all things to all men, and to
find a word in season for every one.

One day, several men of the world began to praise

1 In the Book of Judith (xvi. 24), we read that, "the people were joyful
in the sight of the sanctuary." This was doubtless the thought in the
Saint's mind.

224 A CARTHUSIAN UISI1O1'.

the life of the Carthusian monks, in his presence ; they
compared it to the life of angels, and complained of the
many obstacles and temptations in their own career.
The holy Bishop, knowing that this was not altogether
sincere, and that they had neither will nor vocation
for a cloistered life, spoke in these words: "Do not
imagine that the Kingdom of Heaven is only for monks
and hermits. When God will judge each one of us, he
will not reproach the lost for not having been monks
or solitaries, but for not having been true Christians.
Now, to be a true Christian, three things are necessary ;
and if one of those three things is wanting to us, we
are Christians only in name, and our sentence will be
all the more severe, the more we have made profession
of perfection. The three things are : Charity in the heart,
truth on the lips, and purity of life; if we are wanting in
these, we are unworthy of the name of Christian." 1

This was a favourite maxim with St. Hugh, and he
loved to repeat it and to develop it according to the
capacity of his hearers. To say the truth, it would
be hard to sum up more concisely the moral teaching
of the Gospel. It is this triple radiance of charity,
truth, and purity which constitutes the loveliness of a
true disciple of Jesus Christ, while, at the same time,
nothing is more common or more unfortunate in its
results than the attempt to do honour to one of these
three virtues to the exclusion of the rest. Whatever the
enemies of monasticism may say and think, the cloister
is the best school wherein to learn that charity must
not be separated either from truth or from purity. If
faith and honour were banished from the rest of the
world, they would still find a home in the hearts of
those who have trodden all human respect under foot
in order to conquer for themselves the kingdom of

1 Mil ^ >iii I'ita, bk. iv. ch. 9. " Teneatur caritas in cordc, veritas in
ore, castitas quoque in corpore non fallaciter Christian!. "

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 225

truth. If the secret were ever lost of that admirable
union of truth and mercy which, in the language of
Holy Scripture, ought to meet and to embrace, we might
recover it again in the example of those monks who,
while possessed of the spirit of truest charity, put in
practice this maxim of an early Carthusian writer :
" Truth is apt to be bitter and unpalatable to your
brethren, not through its own fault but through theirs,
in the same way that it is weak eyes which are hurt by
a strong light, not sound ones. But take heed not to
render the truth more bitter still, by forgetting to speak
it as it should be spoken, that is to say, with affection
and charity."

St. Hugh's own example spoke well for the happy
results of monastic teaching in this particular. This
bishop-monk, as we have seen already, and shall see
again in the sequel, was not less intrepid in the defence
of justice and truth, than full of compassion for the
poor, the ignorant, and the helpless. He was as firm as
he was kind, and the strength of his character was as
conspicuous as the goodness of his heart. But with all
this he was equally remarkable for an unstained purity
of soul, which fulfilled to the very letter his own idea of
a perfect Christian.

He knew that it was impossible to take too many
precautions to preserve this delicate blossom from every
breath of harm, and yet he was not blind to the fact
that these precautions ought not to stand in the way
of duty and the service of souls. His conduct with
regard to women was especially distinguished by its
paternal kindness and gentleness, as far removed from
any dangerous presumption, as from excessive pre-
caution or fear. With perfect tact, he drew them on
to follow the example of those holy women, the saints
of God, whom he ever held up for their imitation.
Particularly did he love to speak to them of her who

az6 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

is Blessed among women, the glory and model of her
sex. " You owe a special love to God," he would say,
*' because He condescended to be born of a woman.
That is a privilege which honours every woman. No
man can say that he was the father of God, but Mary
was truly the Mother of God." 1

To those who sought his guidance, he preached
above all and before all else, the accomplishment of
the duties of their state of life. " To do at all times
and in all places what they ought to do, and to do it
with the greatest possible perfection;" 2 such was his
continual recommendation, as it was his own invariable
practice. This is the true monastic spirit, but, also,
in a modified form, it must be the spirit of all who wish
to lead a Christian life. All the faithful should be at
one in this, as the holy Bishop said, however diverse
their several vocations may be, and thus, monks and
warriors, learned men and poor ignorant labourers,
virgins and married women, may all walk side by side
along the road which leads to eternal life.

With this breadth of view and soundness of judg-
ment, it is not surprising that St. Hugh, in dealing with
the various religious communities of his diocese, acted
in accordance with the wise directions of St. Bernard.
" We are all," wrote that holy Doctor, " whatever our
state of life may be, whether we be monks of Cluny, or
Cistercians, Canons Regular, or simple laymen, what-
ever be our age, sex, and condition, at all times, and in
all places, from the first to the last, we are all, I say,
equally members of the Mystical Body of Christ. . . .
If you ask me why I do not belong to all the Orders,
because I praise them all, this is my reply : I praise
them and I love them all. I approve of all who live
piously and devoutly in the holy Church of God. I
belong to one Order alone by my rule of life, but I

1 Afagna Vita, bk. iv. ch. <j. 2 Ibid. bk. iii. ch. 13.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 227

embrace all the others in the bond of charity. And
this charity, I am confident, will make me participate
in the merit even of those observances which I do not
myself practise." l

The numerous communities of monks and nuns in
the diocese of Lincoln soon perceived the interest
which our Saint took in all that concerned them.
They found in him a champion of their rights, and an
upholder of their Rules and Constitutions. Although
he never hesitated to insist on any necessary reforms,
the Bishop was far from wishing to propagate indis-
criminately the special austerities of his own Order,
and never imposed or advised their practice for Con-
gregations who followed another rule of life. He even
blamed Abbots and Superiors who wished to enforce
perpetual abstinence in monasteries in which it had
not before been observed. As he pointed out to one
of them, such an innovation might produce a very bad
spirit, especially if the table of the Abbot were served
more delicately than that of the other Religious. " You
who are Superiors," he said, "ought to be the example
and consolation of your monks, and if you introduce a
penance that is not prescribed by the Rule, you do not
edify the community, but you provoke them to anger.
. . . If I myself observe perpetual abstinence, it is
because I belong to an Order in which it is practised.
But, as you yourselves must see, the Carthusians are
not a numerous body, and their austerities are not
suitable for persons whose constitutions are delicate.
Your own Order, on the contrary, aims at attracting
many subjects and accommodating itself to all tempera-
ments ; for that reason it ought to show some indulgence
to human infirmity, and to consider the needs of the
feebler among the brethren." 2

1 S. Bernardi, Apologia ad Gulielmum S. Thedorici Abbatem, 3 et 4.
2 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 16.

228 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

Under other circumstances, the holy Bishop would
undoubtedly have added that there were man)' persons
of delicate health who were quite able to keep the
Carthusian Rule, but the tone of what he said was
entirely in conformity with the traditions of his Order,
which from its very foundation had been remarkable
for its perfect disinterestedness. Thus, Dom Guigo, the
author of the Constitutions, in 1132, advised Blessed
Stephen of Obazine to adopt the Cistercian Rule, and
not that of his own Order. " The Cistercians also," he
said, " are travellers along the royal road. Their
Constitutions can lead a soul to the highest perfection.
With us, the number of persons we may receive is
limited, as is the amount of funds we may possess.
For you, who have already several monks under your
guidance, and who intend to receive a great many
more, that Rule is best which is not tied down to such
definite restrictions, but which is limited solely by the
high standard of fervour and virtue it enjoins upon all
who belong to it." 1

In these two answers, both inspired by the same
spirit, is to be found an example of that justice and
charity which ought to prevail not only in the relations
of individuals, but also in those of corporate bodies.
Without ceasing to cherish a preference for their own
way of life, all Religious ought to be ready to acknow-
ledge the merits of other Orders and Congregations,
and to rejoice at their prosperity with true brotherly
love.

Our Carthusian Bishop was not satisfied with
speaking, he acted, and his influence was all-powerful
in reviving regularity in the monasteries under his
jurisdiction. One slight memorial of his canonical
visitations remains to us, in a copy of the Constitu-

1 Mabillun, Annul. lxxx\i. n. 7^ ; Hist. LitUrairc d< la France t
voL xi.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 229

tions given by him to a community of religious women
at Gotham. The following is a translation of some
of the most important passages in this interesting docu-
ment :

" To all the faithful in Christ, who may see
this present writing, Hugh, by the grace of God, Bishop
of Lincoln, health and benediction in the Lord.

"The duties of our charge having brought us to
Gotham, there to visit the Congregation of Servants
of Christ, we have endeavoured to remedy certain
things which appeared to us defective. As the number
of nuns at present is too large for the resources of the
house, we have ordained, with the consent of the
chaplain, of the Prioress, and the rest of the community,
that in future there shall not be more than thirty choir
nuns, ten lay-sisters, and twelve lay-brothers. The
service of the Altar shall be entrusted to one chief
chaplain, assisted by two others only. . . . As the
renunciation of all personal property is a necessary
consequence of the religious profession, we expressly
forbid any one in this house to possess anything of
her own, after having taken the religious habit.
Everything must be in common. Let the nuns, the
chaplains, the Brothers, the Sisters, and the guests,
be all fed with the same bread, and refreshed with the
same drink, except in the case of the sick and infirm,
who shall have what is necessary for them. As the
society of secular persons may disturb the peace of the
Religious, we do not allow any person in secular dress
to remain in the house except for one day and one
night, as a matter of necessary hospitality. We ordain
also that no secular person or member of any other
Religious Order shall be admitted to speak with any
of the sisters in private. . . . No nun can be allowed
to leave the house to visit her relatives without a

230 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

special permission from the Prioress, and the head
chaplain, which is not to be granted except in a case
of grave necessity. In order to prevent the crime of
simony which precipitates many souls into error and
damnation, we expressly forbid any person to be
admitted into the congregation by a compact and in
exchange for a sum of money, or any temporal advantage.
. . . And, under pain of excommunication, we enjoin
upon every person residing in this house, the faithful
observance of all the Rules here laid down." 1

Many other documents show us how he protected
the possessions, and defended the privileges of the
Congregations of his diocese. 2 Such are those charters
or deeds of gift, in which the motive of the donation
is thus indicated : " To satisfy the just demands of our
Religious, and by our episcopal authority to prevent
the alienation of the gifts made to Christ's poor."
Two of these deeds throw light on the relations of

1 This document, as printed by Dugdale, vol. v. p. 577, without names
of witnesses or other indication of the date, affords no means of determining
whether it emanated from St. Hugh, or whether it belongs to the long
and active episcopate of his namesake Hugh de Wells. Apart from the
character of the provisions it contains, which as the author of the life points
out, are in thorough accord with St. Hugh's mind and spirit, I may refer
to one little fact which possibly points to a special connection between
St. Hugh and the community in question. Gotham or Nun-Cotton was a
Cistercian Nunnery, as were also those of Legbourne or Leyburn, Green-
field, Gokwell, and Stykeswold, all in Lincolnshire. Now we have some
indications of the special interest of St. Hugh in these foundations. A
charter of his to Greenfield is printed by Dugdale, and in the common
seal of Leyburn there is represented underneath a figure of our Lady the
head of a bishop with mitre and crozier. (The matrix of this seal was
in the possession of the late Mr. Robert Berkeley of Spetchley. ) It is hard to
see whom this can be intended to represent if not St. Hugh ; on the
other hand, if St. Hugh, in virtue of the Constitutions summarized above,
was looked upon as a sort of lawgiver by the Cistercian communities of
Lincolnshire, it would be very natural after his canonization that his portrait
should be introduced into the common-seal of any of their houses. [Eo.]

- On St. Hugh's relations with the Benedictine Abbeys of Kvnshum
and St. Albans, see bk. iii. ch. 3.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 231

St. Hugh with the nuns of St. Michael, near Stamford,
and those of the Convent of Greenfield. In five other
deeds we see him in communication with the monks
of the hospital at Brackley, with those of the Monastery
of St. Oswald at Bardeney, with those of St. Andrew
at Northampton, with those of Luffield, and with the
Canons Regular of Sempringham at Malton. 1

The founder of the Order last named, St. Gilbert of
Sempringham, was still living, during the first years of
St. Hugh's episcopate. Everything tends to make us
believe that the two servants of God were personally
acquainted with each other, and we will pause for a few
moments to give a short account of this illustrious
ascetic, who is, like our Saint, one of the glories of the
diocese of Lincoln.

Gilbert was born in Lincolnshire in the year 1083,
and ordained priest by Bishop Alexander, who also
wished to appoint him Archdeacon. But Gilbert
refused to accept any ecclesiastical dignity, and pre-
ferred to found in his parish of Sempringham an
Order of cloistered nuns, which developed rapidly. In
1148, he presented himself at the General Chapter of
the Cistercian Order, presided over by Pope Eugenius
III., and humbly begged the Cistercians to take charge

1 This is probably very far from being a complete list of the extant
charters of St. Hugh in favour of religious communities. The Historical
MSS. Commission (Report xii. Appendix 9, p. 559) lets us know that there
are a considerable number of similar documents belonging to the reign of
Henry II., preserved in the library of the Dean and Chapter at Lincoln,
some of which probably emanated from St. Hugh. There are also a great
quantity of charters in the Record Office, which have as yet only partially
been calendared in the two vols. of the Catalogue of Ancient Deeds. Even
at the British Museum there are a few muniments which show St. Hugh,
for instance, to have been in close relation with the Premonstratensians of
Newhouse, and the Cistercian Nuns of Greenfield. See Harleian charters,
43 H. 38. b ; 43 H. 23 ; 43 H. 22 ; 43 H. 24. Another charter of St. Hugh's,
conceded to the nuns of Catesby, Northamptonshire, has been printed in
full in the volume of Ancient Charters edited by Mr. J. H. Round for the
Pipe Roll Society. Others, again, are in the Ramsey Cartulary. [ED. J

232 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

of his convents and monasteries. But they were not
willing to undertake this, and the Pope commanded
him to continue his own good work. Returning to
England, after forming a friendship with St. Bernard
and St. Malachy, Gilbert founded a new Congregation
of Regular Canons, to whom he gave the Rule of
St. Augustine. During his lifetime, he established
thirteen religious houses, four of Regular Canons, and
nine of nuns, containing in all more than two thousand
persons.

To a wonderful austerity of life, he united an
energy of character which was specially manifested
by his bold defence of St. Thomas of Canterbury.
St. Gilbert was accused to the King of having sent
large sums of money to the Archbishop, during his
exile in France. He was threatened with banishment
also, if he would not take a solemn oath that this
accusation was false. He refused thus to exculpate
himself from what, as he considered, would have been
a very praiseworthy action, or to appear in any way
to sympathize with the persecution of the holy primate.
He accordingly remained patiently waiting for the
order which was to drive him into banishment, when
a royal message unexpectedly arrived setting him
unconditionally at liberty. 1

May we not imagine how delighted he must have
been, towards the end of his life, to hear how the new
Bishop of Lincoln had fearlessly spoken the truth to
that same King, and had triumphed over his anger ?
Was he not full of joy to welcome this Carthusian,
this true monk at heart, as the protector of his numerous

1 The Life of St. Gilbert has been printed in Dugdale's Mon.isticon,
from MS. Cotton, Cleopatra, B. x. A MS. of the same Life in the Bodleian
(Digby, 360) proves that St. Gilbert had met St. Hugh. (See Note to this
chapter, p. 236). We also find St. Gilbert's name amongst the witnesses
to a document issued by Bishop Chesney (c. 1160 1166), touching the
immunities of the Lincoln Canons. (Statutes, Edit. Bradshaw.) [Eo.J

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 233

religious family ? We cannot doubt that it was so.
When St. Gilbert peacefully passed to his rest in 1189,
at the age of 106 years, surrounded by the veneration
of all, he must, we believe, have counted St. Hugh
amongst his devoted friends, and have begged Heaven's
blessing upon the beginnings of an episcopate so full of
promise.

NOTE TO BOOK II. CHAPTER X.

The custom of requiring that half of the Canons
engaged in the recitation of Office should always be
standing during the chanting of the psalms, seems to
have been general in England. In the summary of
Lincoln observances (c. 1215), referred to on a previous
page, 1 it is stated that: "All ought to remain standing
during all the hours the whole year through, but with
the following mitigations. . . . During matins those
present in choir remain seated while the lessons are
being read, and while the responsoria are being sung as
far as Gloria Pain. . . . Whenever the psalms are being
chanted they may sit alternately, except on doubles
(praterquam in duplicibus festis), but with this proviso,
that when any one is seated during any psalm, his next
neighbour must remain standing. . . . Moreover, this
permission to sit alternately does not extend to the
choir boys, or to the rulers of the choir, who are to
remain standing continuously whenever psalms are
being chanted."

There is a good deal in the wording of the Ordi-
narium Cartmicnse and the Statuta Antiqua which seems
to suggest some relation with the early thirteenth
century abstract of the Lincoln customs from which
I have just quoted. However, in 1259, the practice
of the Carthusians, as to sitting at the Office, while
l Wilkins, i. p. 535.

234 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

agreeing closely with the Lincoln customs as to the
occasions when it was permitted, differs in this, that,
among the Carthusians, the whole of one side of the
choir sat down together, while the other remained
standing, an exchange being made at the end of the
psalm. 1 Whether this, however, was the Carthusian
practice in St. Hugh's time, it seems impossible to
ascertain. It may be that the custom originated with
St. Hugh, and spread from Lincoln to Salisbury and
London. As a matter of fact, the summary of Lincoln
customs which I have been quoting from was probably
drawn up earlier than any existing code of Cathedral
statutes which has been preserved to us, those which
are assigned to St. Osmund of Salisbury having received
their present shape after the year 1215. In any case,
this alternation of sitting and standing was observed at
Sarum and at St. Paul's and at Wells, though it was
always regarded as a concession, and the St. Paul's
statutes expressly note that the licence was granted
prapter infirmitatem et dcbilitatem?

St. Hugh's punctiliousness in all matters pertaining
to Church ceremonial is well illustrated in an anecdote
told by Giraldus Cambrensis concerning him and an
episcopal namesake of his, Hugh de Nonant, Bishop of
Coventry. One day, which chanced to be the feast of
a confessor, the two Bishops were about to assist at the
same Mass, apparently the principal, or conventual
Mass, of the church in which they were present. The
Bishop of Coventry accordingly began to read the
Introit, Os justi meditabituv sapientiam, aloud, but in his
speaking voice, so at least I interpret Giraldus' phrase,

1 The Sititittd Antiqiia say : Chorus in quo est cantor hebdomadarius
stdet lotus ad primos psalmos et alter ad secundos, part i. ch. 37, 29 (Edit.
1510). The Ordinarium of 1582 seems to require that the change should
be made at the end of every second psalm.

3 Cf. Vetus R eg i strum barisbtriensc (Rolls Series), i. p. 26; II' til
Statutes, Edit. Reynolds, p. 3.

A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP. 235

voce rotunda et prosaica pronnnciatione non melica. This did
not at all please the Bishop of Lincoln, and he promptly
began to sing the same Introit in resonant tones,
dwelling upon the notes, and introducing all the proper
modulations. The Bishop of Coventry protested : " We
must make haste," he said, " for the King will be
waiting for us, and he is in a great hurry." " I can't
help that," his brother of Lincoln replied, " we must do
homage first to the King of kings. No secular employ-
ment can dispense us from what we owe to Him ; and
our service to-day should be festive, not restive "festive
potiits hoc festum et non festine est agendum. The end of it
was that St. Hugh came very late to the council-
chamber, long after the others had assembled, but as it
happened, and Giraldus seems to insinuate that a
special providence ordered it so, no business had yet
been broached, and nobody was kept waiting.

Hugh Nonant was one of the courtier bishops, a
diplomatist and man of affairs. His hostility to the
monks was almost proverbial. " If I had my way," he
said to King Richard, "there would not be a monk left
in England." Not long after this he banished the
monks who formed the chapter of Coventry, and substi-
tuted secular canons in their place. An appeal was
lodged with the Holy See, and in 1197, Archbishop
Hubert of Canterbury, our Bishop Hugh of Lincoln,
and Samson, Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, were
appointed by Pope Celestine III. to see that the Papal
judgment decreeing the restoration of the monks was
carried into effect. 1 It is interesting to find Abbot
Samson, so familiar to all readers of Carlyle's Past and
Present as the hero of the chronicle of Jocelyn de
Brakelond, brought into close relation with his equally

1 See this document in Hoveden (Rolls Series), vol. iv. p. 35. Some-
thing more will be said on this subject in bk. iii. ch. 5. The commission
was renewed and extended in further letters from Innocent III,

236 A CARTHUSIAN BISHOP.

strong-minded contemporary, the Bishop of Lincoln.
Not less curious and interesting is it to learn that
Hugh de Nonant, the sworn foe of the monks, resigned
his bishopric the same year, withdrew to the Cluniac
Monastery of Bee Herluin, where, it seems, he was
admitted into the Order, and died there in 1198, after
spending the intervening months in prayer, almsgiving,
and penance. In the middle ages, the spirit of faith
was often strong in those who might otherwise seem
the most unpromising subjects.

Giraldus, who tells the story narrated above, adds
that in the summer of 1189, the year of Henry II. 's
death, while Hugh, with several other bishops, was in
Normandy, following the King as he hurried from
place to place, the only prelate who would not travel
on the great festivals of the Church, but insisted on
celebrating them all with due solemnity, was the
Bishop of Lincoln.

With regard to St. Gilbert of Sempringham, we
learn from a passage in the Bodleian Life that he knew
St. Hugh, and that shortly before his death he deferred
to the Bishop's judgment in some points concerning
the Constitutions of the Gilbertine Order. 1 [Eo.]

1 "Ante pauca enim decessus sui tempera, providens perpetuae in
posterum collect! gregis firmitati, dissidium illud quod a laicis conversis
quondam fuerat exortum coram bonse memoriae Hugone Lincolniensi
episcopo cum communis capituli assensu pacificavit, quern modum et
mensuram in victa et vestitu et ceteris motibus suis tenerent satis rationabili
moderatione decernens. Quam constitutionem sibi gratam esse debere
judicantes omnes laici amplexati sunt nihil addendum vel minuendum fore
statuentes. Ubi tamen secundum priorem constanciae suse rigorem illud
excepit, ut si quid contra primam eorum professionem constitueretur, hoc
non ad eum spectare asseruit nee se voluit laudari auctorem." (Digby, 360,
fol. 45, r.) I owe the transcription of this passage to the kindness of the
Rev. Father de Smedt, S.J., President of the Rollandists,

CHAPTER XL

HIS RETREATS AT WITH AM.

NOTWITHSTANDING all the care he took to remain
faithful to the Carthusian Rule, St. Hugh never ceased
to regret the peaceful life of his solitary cell. Several
times he begged of the Pope to allow him to give up
his episcopal charge and return to the cloister ; a
permission which he would have regarded, to use the
phrase current in his Order, as a real " Mercy." But
less fortunate in this respect than several other Carthu-
sian Bishops, 1 his request was always refused, and at
last his messengers were severely reprimanded, and
dismissed in such a manner that St. Hugh never
ventured to appeal again. 2

There was one consolation, however, left to him,
and this he found in his long and frequent visits to his
beloved monastery at Witham. If his duties permitted,
he would go there once or twice each year, and make
a stay of a month or sometimes longer. He had a
special preference for making his retreats in the autumn.
At that time of the year, nature herself seems to preach
recollection and preparation for death ; there is a touch of

1 Amongst others : Engelbert, who was a Carthusian monk before he was
appointed Bishop of Chalons, afterwards allowed to retire to the Monastery
of Mont Dieu : St. Artaud, Bishop of Belley, allowed to return, to his old
Carthusian Monastery at Arvieres. Of St. Artaud we shall hear again in
connection with St. Hugh. (Annales Ot'd. Carlus. iii. p. 95.)

2 Magtia Vita, bk. v. ch. 13.

238 RETREATS AT WITH AM.

austerity about the silence and denudation of the woods;
and the soul is open to grave thoughts, and prepared
for that interior harvest which must be accompanied
by a total renunciation of all things.

When St. Hugh drew near the Monastery of
Witham, his heart was filled with joy, and those who
watched him saw the colour come into his face, and
his eyes shine. He, usually so silent, could not contain
his happiness, and expressed it in words to his com-
panions. Nothing makes us appreciate solitude so
much as the tumult of the world ; nothing is so sweet
as to quit our intercourse with worldly things and
persons, for the holy society of souls consecrated to
God.

The monastery at Witham was in the same state
of fervour and religious observance, as when St. Hugh
had left there. The Prior was Dom Bovo, the venerable
monk who had so strongly advocated sending Hugh
to England, and had also predicted his future pro-
motion to the episcopate. Dom Bovo, as Prior of
Witham, neglected nothing to maintain in his monastery
that heavenly peace which has its origin in religious
virtue. He applied to the former Prior of the Grande
Chartreuse, Dom Guigo II., for a copy of his Instruc-
tions on a life of solitude. Dom Guigo had in fact
dedicated the book to him, and called it, De Quadripertito
Exercitio Cella " On the Four Exercises proper for a
Monastic Cell," in it he enlarged upon the advantages
of reading, contemplation, prayer, and work, with many
quotations from Holy Scripture, and a sound know-
ledge of spiritual things. The preface expressed the
veneration felt for Dom Bovo by his former Superior,
whose eminent sanctity we know. And we may well
say that these directions for the guidance of a solitary
life were faithfully reproduced in the actions of the
Prior of Witham and his monks.

RETREATS AT WITH AM. 239

An edifying death occurred at Witham soon after
Dom Bovo succeeded St. Hugh as Prior. Brother
Gerard of Nevers yielded up his holy soul to God,
surrounded by the loving veneration of his Religious
brethren, as well as of the visitors to the monastery,
among whom chanced to be found Peter of Blois. It
is from him we learn that for seven years, the holy
Brother had ardently desired death, and prepared for
it by his prayers and tears. " In all his actions," says
this writer, " he longed after Jesus Christ, despising the
things of earth, and looking up to Heaven; using this
world as though he used it not." Although a man
of no learning, he understood every point of Catholic
doctrine, as perfectly as if he had studied all his life
in the theological schools of Paris. " His only Master
was the Lord who taught the Apostles." And Peter
of Blois ends in these eloquent words : " May my
wisdom and my philosophy be those of Brother Gerard,
whose heart was full of Jesus Christ and of Jesus Christ
alone." 1

During his retreats at Witham, the sole desire of
St. Hugh was to resemble in all things his brothers in
Religion. A cell was always reserved for him, similar
to those of the other monks ; he occupied it alone,
without any attendant, laying aside every symbol of
rank or dignity. His clothes, his bed, and everything
about him, differed in nothing from what was common
to all. Every day he celebrated Holy Mass with
ardent devotion, assisted only by the Father Sacristan
and his chaplain. With the sole exception of the
pastoral ring, his vestments while celebrating were
those of any other Carthusian. He insisted on taking
his turn as hebdomadarius, or officiating priest for the

1 " Sapientia ergo tnea, et philosophia mea sit philosophia Fratris
Gerardi, qui nihil habebat in corde nisi Jesum Christum." (Petrus Bles.
in compend. super Job : Annal. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 58.)

2 4 o RETREATS AT WITHAM.

week, blessing the holy water before the Sunday Mass,
and chanting the prayers in the Office. On Sunday
evenings, he went with the rest of his brothers to beg
for bread at the refectory door. There was but one
privilege he asked of the Prior on the occasion of these
visits, and that was to have free access to the basket
where the remnants of bread were put. It was his
practice to select the hardest and driest crusts, and
carry them away to serve him as a treat, for he
declared that they tasted much better than any ordinary
bread. Another of his pleasures was to wash the plates
and dishes he had used, or even any he accidentally
came across; he did this most carefully, and took an
innocent pride in the thoroughness with which his work
was performed.

His greatest wish, however, was to find some one
who would be willing to give him fraternal correction,
and of course this was somewhat difficult, in spite of
all his efforts to humble himself. He succeeded, how-
ever, at last in inducing one of the oldest and most
edifying monks of Witham to render him this important
service. The admonitor was Dom Adam, who had
formerly been a Premonstratensian and Abbot of
Dryburgh. A confidential friendship thus grew up
between these two saintly men ; and resulted in the
frequent exchange of vigorous exhortations with which
they animated each other to progress in perfection.
Dom Adam, whose piety and learning gave him great
authority, was not afraid to read his friend many a
lecture, which was gratefully received, although perhaps
scarcely deserved. "Many people," he would say,
" admire you as a great and holy Bishop ; but I will
ask you what have you done that is worthy of a Pastor
of souls ? . . . What employment do you make of the
talent entrusted to you ? Do you dare to think that
there is any comparison between your labours and

RETREATS AT WITH AM. 241

those of the Apostles, who, despising all dangers,
founded our Holy Church, and shed their blood for
her sake ? " And the good old monk would continue
drawing his picture of the contrast between the Bishops
of his own day and their heroic predecessors. Hugh
listened to him in all humility, and forgot the good he
had already done, to think of all that remained for
him to do. Then, in his turn, he exhorted his monitor
to strive more and more to be a perfect monk, and so
the two friends spurred each other on to fresh efforts in
the service of God.

But there was another most efficacious humiliation
which Hugh never neglected, namely, that of sacra-
mental confession. Besides his weekly confession,
St. Hugh had recourse to the tribunal of penance
whenever his conscience reproached him ever so
slightly. He made many general confessions of his
whole life from childhood, and during each retreat he
wished at least to mention all the faults he could
remember since the retreat of the year before. All
these repeated self-accusations were made in a spirit
of deep compunction, and were marked by a humility
which found expression in the following favourite
maxim of his. St. Francis de Sales often quoted it in
these terms: "The evil deeds which I commit, are
really evil, and really mine ; the good that I do is
neither wholly good, nor wholly my own." 1

He who humbles himself shall be exalted. When
St. Hugh retired to his cell, he was there raised to such
heights of contemplation and union with God, that he

1 Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 9. According to the Ann&e Sainte de la
Visitation (vol. iv. p. 2), St. Francis de Sales attributes this maxim to
St. Hugh of Grenoble. This is not the only instance in which the two
St. Hughs have been confounded, and the confusion between them is very
natural. It is just possible, however, that both these two, who were com-
patriots and nearly contemporaries, may have given expression to the same
thought.

242 RETREATS AT \VITHAM.

seemed already to enjoy a foretaste of Heaven. To
him might have been applied that beautiful description
in the book written by his old Superior. " When you
are by yourself in your cell, remember that you ought
not to feel lonely. You are never less lonely than when
you are alone, if only you are really what you ought
to be. Are you lonely, when retiring into the sanctuary
of a pure heart, detached from all earthly things, and
closing fast the door against them, you pray in secret
to your Father who is in secret ? Are you lonely,
when rising on the wings of love, and of an understand-
ing supernaturally enlightened, all vain and earthly
thoughts are laid aside, and the spirit roams free
through the splendid mansions of those heavenly beings
who continually behold the Face of the Father. Are
you lonely, when your soul illumined and enraptured
soars up among the patriarchs, through the midst of
the prophets, into the senate of the Apostles, amid the
plains studded with the brilliant roses of the martyrs,
the beautiful violets of the confessors, the perfumed
lilies of the virgins ? Ah ! surely ; it is good for us to
be here I" 1

Hugh also was transfigured on his own solitary
Thabor, and when visitors came to break in upon his
retirement, they found him with his face shining with
that heavenly radiance which told of the presence of
the Spirit of God. On such Occasions, he tried his
hardest to resume his ordinary manner, but in spite of
himself, some of the secrets of Divine grace were
betrayed. Burning words flowed from his lips, and
there was an exquisite tenderness in his voice which
captivated all who came near him.

Yet he never refused to interrupt his contemplation
for any cause of charity or necessity ; still less did he
hesitate to join with cheerfulness and alacrity in those

1 Dt nuadripertito Extrcitio Cdlce, ch. xxviii.

RETREATS AT WIT HAM. 243

few common recreations which are doled out to the
Carthusian monk with a wisely sparing hand. Naturally,
he was the centre of such gatherings, and they looked
to him to tell them something that would interest and
edify. He did not disappoint their expectations, but
had a store of anecdotes about the holy men of his
time, and of his native country, which made those
hours of relaxation delightful to all. According to the
recollections of his chaplain, he specially loved to speak
of St. Hugh of Grenoble, of St. Anthelmus of Belley,
of Brother William of Nevers, and of a certain Cister-
cian monk, who had distinguished himself in the
Crusades by his extraordinary courage.

The two holy Bishops, Hugh of Grenoble and
Anthelmus, whom he thus delighted in extolling, had
been, one of them the friend, and the other the successor,
of St. Bruno. Both of them had maintained the
practice of retiring at intervals to the desert of the
Grande Chartreuse, as St. Hugh himself did to Witham.
Both were remarkable for a singular regard for the
virtue of holy purity, and this was what the Bishop
of Lincoln loved specially to dwell upon in chatting
with his friends within the cloister. He told them how
St. Hugh of Grenoble never raised his eyes in the
presence of any woman, and knew none of them by
sight, excepting one lady who frequently sought his
direction ; while St. Anthelmus, as he himself said,
looked at all women indifferently, but always pictured
them to himself in the hideous disenchantment of the
tomb. 1

The name of Brother William of Nevers was not
unworthy of being mentioned by our Saint, by the side
of these two holy Bishops. His history has been very

1 Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 12. St. Anthelmus' own phrase is almost
too vigorous to bear translation. " Ego sane," he is reported to have said,
" feminas indifterenter quaslibet aspicio, sed mox universas excorio."

244 RETREATS AT IVITIIAM.

briefly touched upon above, 1 and it must always have
had a special interest for those who had been the
constant associates of his near relative Gerard.

As for the brave crusader who also occupied a place
of honour in the tales of St. Hugh, we think that the
Saint must have made his acquaintance while he was
still a monk and procurator at the Grande Chartreuse.
He was a gentleman of Maurienne, whose name has
not come down to us. He left his house, his wife, and
his children, to fight in the Holy Land. There, after
having slain many of the enemies of the Cross, he fell
into the hands of the Saracens, and underwent a cruel
imprisonment.

Instead of losing courage, he strengthened the
Christians who were his fellow-captives, and prepared
them to suffer martyrdom with joy. Sentence of death
was in fact pronounced upon all of them, but the young
Mussulman chief who was appointed to carry it into
execution, was so struck by the noble bearing of the
knight of Maurienne, that he spared his life, and
eventually released him. Grieved to the heart at being
thus deprived of the martyr's crown, the crusader
returned to his own country, and soon took advantage
of a severe injury received in some military exercise,
to retire completely from the world. He took the
Cistercian habit, and was cured soon afterwards.
Every year he was allowed to pay a visit to the Grande
Chartreuse, which he looked upon as the school of high
perfection. He attentively studied the ways of the
monks there, for his own profit and that of his brothers
in Religion. While he was at the Grande Chartreuse,
he always praised the Cistercians ; but as soon as
he returned to his own monastery, he spoke of nothing
but the virtues of the Carthusians. It was his aim by
these means to enkindle in both monasteries a holy
1 Bk. i. ch. Jo.

RETREATS AT WITH AM. 245

spirit of emulation, and the pattern of his own life
corresponded well with the end he had in view. These
were a few of the stories related at recreation by the
holy Bishop of Lincoln.

Among those who listened to him was good Brother
Aynard, whose heart kept its youth, in spite of his
extreme old age. The remembrance of the Grande
Chartreuse, and the desire of seeing it once more, had
taken a strong possession of him. Seeing that his
presence was no longer necessary at Witham, he
begged to be allowed to return to his beloved desert ;
but his prayer was not granted. The idea, however,
clung to him, and it seems that one day, while St. Hugh
chanced to be there for one of his retreats, he took his
stick and set out for that promised land, towards which
all the longing desire of his old age had turned. The
Bishop was informed of his departure, and at once started
in pursuit. He soon overtook the old man in a neigh-
bouring wood. " Now, may God forgive you, dear
Brother ! " he said. " What do you mean by setting off
without me, who have always considered you as my
father ? Are you going to leave me alone in this strange
land ? Oh ! I know your good intentions. You wish to
pass your remaining days in the midst of our holy
hermits of the Grande Chartreuse. Very well. I am
coming with you." With these words, he took off his
pastoral ring and gave it to his attendants, saying:
" Make all possible haste, and carry this ring to our
good lords, the Canons of Lincoln. Tell them to choose
another Bishop, for I am going to return to my solitude.
Too long have I suffered from the cares and anxieties
of the world, and now I mean to have done with it,
once for all."

Brother Aynard was completely dumbfounded at
this speech, which of course was hailed with com-
plaints and expostulations by all his attendants. He

246 RETREATS AT WITH AM.

burst into tears, and threw himself at the feet of the
Bishop, imploring him to change his mind. With much
eloquence he demonstrated to him that the shepherd of
souls must not thus abandon his flock ; then at last,
seeing that his words had no effect, he embraced the
knees of the prelate, crying out : " Ah, well, as long as a
spark of life animates this old body of mine, I will
never allow you thus to desert your post. Rather will
I remain to die in this strange land, than bring about
such a calamity. Let us each return to our ordinary
duties ; and let us take care not to seek our own
interests, by forgetting the interests of Jesus Christ."
We can understand that this was exactly the resolution
which the Bishop had desired to provoke by his inno-
cent stratagem. They entered into an agreement by
which Aynard promised not to leave Witham, and
Hugh promised not to leave Lincoln. After which,
each congratulating himself on having gained a great
victory, they gaily re-entered the monastery.

The story was worth telling as a specimen of the
delightful tact which the Saint was master of, and with
which he so often succeeded in leading back to the
right path any Religious who were tempted to stray
from it. Thanks to him, the good Brother Aynard had
not this time to undergo the same severe penance which
had attended his former act of wilfulness at the Grande
Chartreuse. He died in peace, about the year 1204,
being more than a hundred years old, and the Order
still treasures the memory of his long services and his
courage in well-doing. 1

We see that the time spent by St. Hugh at Witham
was not lost either for himself or for his brethren.
Even for the interests of his diocese and those of the

1 Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 13 ; Anna/. Ord. Cartus, vol. iii. p. 303.
According to St. Hugh's biographer, Brother Aynard was one hundred
and thirty years of age when he died.

RETREATS AT WITH AM. 247

Universal Church, of which he was the vigilant
defender, under the direction of the Sovereign Pontiff,
it was surely not wasted. Certain censors among his
contemporaries who had little sympathy with the con-
templative life, were disposed to judge otherwise, and
reproached the Bishop with giving too much time to
these spiritual holidays, although they would not have
had a word to say against him if he had spent long
months at Court or in other visits of courtesy. But
Hugh cared nothing for such reproaches, and continued
to refresh his soul at regular intervals, and to draw
new life and vigour from the springs that had nourished
his earlier years. The most active saints followed the
same method, and their example proves like his, that
there is nothing which contributes so much as retire-
ment and prayer to the formation of the character of
an apostle.

CHAPTER XII.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE THIRD CRUSADE.
DEATH OF KING HENRY II.

ONE year after the consecration of St. Hugh, on the
2Qth of September, 1187, the city of Jerusalem, which
had been for nearly a century the capital of a Christian
kingdom, fell again into the hands of the Mahometans.
When the news of this disaster reached Europe, the
whole Catholic world was filled with consternation.
Then the powerful voice of the Head of the Church
was uplifted in the midst of the universal mourning,
lamenting the fate of the Holy City, and calling upon
all the faithful to take measures for its speedy deliver-
ance.

Pope Gregory VIII., in a Bull worthy of the
occasion and of his predecessors, after having described
the disaster, exhorted all faithful Christians to make
common cause to repair it. He declared that there
was danger not only of the infidels taking possession
of the rest of the kingdom of Jerusalem, but of their
gathering their forces to march against other Christian
nations. " It behoved all Christian Kings and people,"
he said, " to forget their divisions and private quarrels,
and unite in hastening to the re-conquest of that blessed
land, upon which the Eternal Truth manifested
Himself for our salvation, and did not shrink from
the Agony and Death of the Cross." The Sovereign
Pontiff concluded by enumerating the privileges ac-

PREPARATIONS FOR THE THIRD CRUSADE. 249

corded to all who should take part in the new Crusade,
foremost among which was a Plenary Indulgence, and
by recommending the soldiers of Christ to look upon
themselves as penitents making expiation for their sins,
rather than as soldiers of the world, in quest of earthly
glory." A general fast was also ordered, to appease the
anger of God, and obtain the deliverance of Jerusalem.

This appeal of the Holy Father was at once
responded to, and on all sides preparations for the
Third Crusade were commenced. The Bishops warmly
seconded the command of their Chief Pastor, and
many of the most eminent amongst them took the
Cross themselves, to set an example to the rest of the
faithful. The Bishop of Lincoln was not able to leave
his diocese, which had been so long without a shepherd,
but we are surely warranted in believing that he shared
the general enthusiasm, and stimulated his flock to
generous efforts in the cause. 1

A rationalist historian, who is more disposed to
argue against, than to exaggerate the advantages of
the Crusades, thus describes the spectacle presented
by the Church after the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin.
" In one moment, the face of the whole Christian world
was changed. Mourning over the loss of the tomb of
Jesus Christ, men came to think a little more of the
Gospel which He had come to preach and began to
amend their lives. Vice was banished from the towns ;
injuries were forgiven ; enemies were reconciled ; and
abundant alms were given to the poor. Penitent
Christians lay upon ashes, and covered themselves with
hair-cloth, thus desiring to expiate their sins by fasting
and mortification. The clergy were the first to set the
example." 2

1 Gervase says that St. Hugh himself took the Cross, (i. p. 410.) [Eo.]

2 Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, vol. ii. bk. vii. p. 313. It is a
striking thing to read how the news impressed good Abbot Samson at

2 5 o PREPARATIONS FOR THE THIRD CRUSADE.

St. Hugh, no doubt, did all in his power to secure for
his diocese the blessings of this time of conversion and
salvation. If he had needed any other spur to stimu-
late his zeal than devotion to the Holy See and to the
flock committed to him, he had only to remember the
traditions of his Order ; for St. Bruno had been
the intimate friend and adviser of Pope Urban II.
at the time of the First Crusade. Even in our own
days, the Carthusians recite every night the beautiful
Psalm Ixxviii. for the deliverance of the Holy Land. 1

Pope Gregory VIII. died after a reign of less than
two months; but his successor, Clement III., urged on
the work, and William, Archbishop of Tyre, was
specially commissioned to preach the Crusade in the
West. In the discharge of this duty he succeeded in
awakening a marvellous enthusiasm. At Gisors, King
Philip Augustus of France and Henry II. of England
took the Cross, after listening to his burning words,
forgetting for the time their private differences, to join
hands in the cause of Christ. At Mainz, in company
with Cardinal Henry of Clairvaux, he pleaded the
cause of the Holy Places with so much eloquence, that
the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa descended from his
throne, and then and there received from the hands of

Bury St. Edmunds. "At the taking of Jerusalem by the pagans," says
Carlyle, paraphrasing Brakelond, "Abbot Samson put on a cilice and
hair-shirt, and wore under-garments of hair-cloth ever after. He abstained
also from flesh and flesh meats (came et carneis] thenceforth to the end of
his life." (Past and Present, bk. ii. ch. 15.) Brakelond does not quite say
that Samson never eat meat again, but it is clear that this far-off English
Abbot looked upon the loss of Jerusalem as a grievous personal sorrow,
and as a manifestation of God's anger, for which it behoved all good
Christians to make expiation by every means in their power. [ED.]

1 According to Dom Le Couteulx, it was after the Council of Lateran,
in 1215, that the Carthusian Order began the recitation of the prayers
which are now said for the Holy Land. But we have reason for believing
that similar prayers were in use by the Order from the time of the First
Crusade. (See Annal. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 391.)

DEATH OF KING HENRY II. 251

the preacher the emblem which pledged him to fight
against the infidel. Thus, the three greatest monarchs
of Christendom were sworn to take part in the new
Holy War, and there is little doubt that they sincerely
desired to do all in their power for its success. 1 The
King of England addressed a letter to the Christians of
the East, promising them speedy help, and repeating
with enthusiasm the words of the Prophet Isaias, the
speedy fulfilment of which he predicted: "Lift up
thine eyes round about, O Jerusalem, and see all these
that are gathered together, to come to thee." 2 Alas!
the demon of discord soon put a stop to all these
promising preparations, and war broke out again
between England and France.

Richard, the son of King Henry II., joined with
Philip Augustus against his father, imagining that the
old King intended to leave the crown of England to
his younger son John. Henry met with a succession
of reverses, and was forced to sign the conditions of
peace dictated by his enemies. As a final blow, he
saw the name of his son John, at the head of a list of
his own nobles who were in league against him. This
broke his heart. He journeyed to Chinon, where he
fell dangerously ill, cursing his rebellious children.
" On the seventh day, all hope of his recovery vanished,
and at his own request, he was carried into the church,
and received, at the foot of the altar, the last consola-
tions of religion. The moment he expired, the Bishops
and Barons departed, while the other attendants
stripped the corpse and carried off everything that was
valuable upon which they could lay their hands. He
was buried with little pomp in the choir of the Convent

1 An extraordinary tax known as the Saladin tithe was imposed to
defray the expenses of the Crusade. None were exempted from it but
the Crusaders themselves, the Carthusians, the Cistercians, the nuns of
Fontevrault, and the leper hospitals.

2 Isaias xlix. 18.

252 DEATH OF KING HENRY II.

of Fontevrault, in the presence of his son Richard,
and of a few knights and prelates." 1 It was the 6th of
July, 1189.

The Bishop of Lincoln does not appear to have been
there, but we may be sure his fervent prayers were not
wanting on behalf of his unhappy friend and King,
who had almost invariably shown him the greatest
confidence and affection. What could he think of this
sad death ? Doubtless he recognized in it the finger
of God, but without despairing of the salvation of a
soul whose welfare he had always had at heart.

No one can deny the fact and his own contem-
poraries were deeply impressed by it that the Divine
vengeance seemed to have set its seal on the last days
of Henry II. Persecuted by his own children, the
poor old King thus expiated his persecution of the holy
Archbishop of Canterbury, his own spiritual father.
That was the great crime of his life, and must always
remain as a blot upon his memory. But while we
cannot hope to whitewash the evil deeds of Henry,
we must always remember how many proofs of repent-
ance and of a wish to repair the past he gave in the
course of his after life. From the time of his penitential
pilgrimage to Canterbury, down to his last moments,
which were sanctified by the sacraments of the Church,
he had on many occasions, in spite of occasional
relapses, acted and spoken in a manner worthy of a
Christian prince. And his last resolution of setting
out for the Holy Land, at his age a formidable under-
taking, showed that his wish to make atonement for
his Sins was not a mere pretence.

During his life he had not neglected to make friends
for himself to plead his cause with God. He gave
abundant alms to the poor and to various religious
communities ; and seven years before his death, about

1 Lingard, History of England, vol. ii. p. 236.

DEATH OF KING HENRY II. 253

the time that St. Hugh became his constant adviser,
he made a will which contained many pious and
generous bequests. Thus he gave twenty thousand
silver marks, to be divided into four equal portions,
between the Knights Templars, the Knights Hospi-
tallers, the different religious houses in Palestine, and
for the defence of the Holy Land. He gave five
thousand to religious houses in England, three thousand
to those in Normandy, and two thousand to those of
Anjou. As a dowry for poor maidens in England, so
that they might be able to get respectably married, he
left three hundred gold marks ; two hundred for the
same object, in Normandy ; and a hundred for poor
maidens of Anjou. Two thousand silver marks were
to be divided among the nuns in Fontevrault, where
he wished to be buried ; and ten thousand more
were left to other convents and monasteries. 1 To
the Carthusian Order he bequeathed a legacy of two
thousand silver marks, not to speak of an annual sum
of fifty marks which was to be paid to the same monks
out of the royal exchequer. 2

An historian of his own day says of Henry II.,
" I think, that if his death was miserable, it was
because God wished to punish him severely in this life,
and show mercy to him in the next." 3 There are good
reasons, as we have already seen, for sharing this
opinion, and for not passing more severe judgment
upon Henry II., than upon his great contemporary, the
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who died about a year
after the King of England. The Emperor had been a
persecutor of Pope Alexander III., and he had done

1 See Lingard, History of England, vol. ii. p. 239. Henry II.'s will
seems to have made a considerable impression on his contemporaries, which
is evidenced, for instance, by the fact that all its leading provisions appear
in French verse in the rhyming chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft. [ED.J

2 Annal. Ord. Cartus. vol. ii. p. 493, and vol. iii. p. 23.

8 William of Newburgh, Hist, rerum. Anglic, bk. iii. ch. 16.

254 DEATH OF KING HENRY II.

as much to disturb the peace of the Church, as the
persecutor of St. Thomas of Canterbury. Frederick set
out for the Holy Land, in atonement for his sins,
but before reaching Jerusalem, he was drowned while
bathing in a river of Armenia, having time, before he
breathed his last, to recommend his soul to God, and
make an act of resignation to God's will that he should
go no further.

In those days, faith survived in the hearts even of
those monarchs who were most intoxicated by their
own greatness and power ; so that sooner or later,
their conscience awoke, and they returned to the
practice of religion and to the fulfilment of their
neglected duties. It was much easier for them to
listen to the voice of a still living faith, when they
had the happiness of meeting with saints whose very
appearance preached virtue and holiness more impres-
sively than the most eloquent sermon. Frederick
Barbarossa had this privilege, when he saw St. Peter
of Tarentaise ; and Henry II. of England enjoyed a
similar grace, not once but continuously, when he
became the friend of St. Hugh of Lincoln. That was
a title of honour which certainly must have pleaded in
his favour before the tribunal of God ; nor must it be
ignored or passed over by the tribunal of history.

NOTE TO BOOK II. CHAPTER XII.

As an illustration of the impression which Henry II. 's
character made upon the best informed chroniclers
of a somewhat later date, I may quote the comments
of Matthew Paris, upon that portion of the prophecy
of Merlin, which was supposed to have reference to
Henry, identified as the King " who overturned the
walls of Ireland." *' His beginning," said the bard,
" shall lie open to wandering affection, but his end

DEATH OF KING HENRY It. 255

shall carry him up to the Blessed above. For he shall
restore the seats of Saints in their countries and settle
pastors in convenient places. Two cities he shall
invest with two palls and shall bestow virgin presents
upon virgins. He shall merit by this the favour of the
thunderer and shall be placed among the Saints." l
Upon " restoring the seats of Saints," Matthew remarks:
" It is to be observed that the said King, of whom there
is here question, to wit Henry, first brought to this
kingdom the Templars and Hospitallers, the White
Monks [the Carthusians ?p and the nuns of Font
Evraud, and he gave them virgin gifts, that is gifts
new and unheard of which were never given by any
other King before him." By " the seats of Saints,"
Matthew understands, " bishoprics, abbacies, and such
like," and he goes on to tell us that Henry " newly
established two archbishoprics in Ireland." 3 I am not
of course concerned to defend either prophecy or
interpretation ; I quote it only to show Matthew's
attitude of mind towards Henry, whose history, he and
other chroniclers seemed to consider to have accurately
fulfilled all these predictions.

With regard to Henry's unhappy relations with his
sons, Giraldus tells us that the King, at some earlier
period, had had an allegorical picture painted for him
at Winchester, in which he bade the artist represent
an eagle attacked by four of its young. He seems to
have had a prophetic foreboding of the disloyalty of
all of them, and attributed their revolt to the effects
of a curse which had been laid upon their ancestor,
the grandfather of his Queen Eleanor. This was
William, Duke of Aquitaine, who seduced and carried

1 I quote from the old translation of Aaron Thompson, p. 211.

2 The term "White Monks " seems more usually to have been applied
to the Premonstratensians or to the Cistercians.

3 Matt. Paris, Chronica Majora. Edit. Luard, i. p. 208.

-\>o :77/ OF KIXG HEXRY II

off the i of his 1 I of

Chatelhetaut. A devout hermit \vho came to him in
God's na g| against this outrage ived

with insult and contempt, whereupon the hermit told
him solemnly that since he would not he.
warning, neither he MM :-.is lineal descendants

should ever know happiness in his children. It H
worth while referring to the matter here
Giraldus reports that the story was often told by
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, of blessed and holy
mcir,o:\." who quoted as his authority no less a
personage than King Henry 11. himself. [Eo.]

BOOK III.

ST. HUGH OF LINCOLN AND RICHARD OF THE
LION HEART.

1189 IJ 99-

CHAPTER I.

RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND.

IN the beginning of the new King's reign, the Church
might well ask herself whether she would find a per-
secutor or a protector in the successor of Henry II.
Richard possessed many brilliant qualities, but they
were marred by grave defects. His courage was beyond
cavil, and it was to be attested by many a deed of
daring ; he had a great love for poetry and minstrelsy ;
his inspirations were sometimes worthy of a true knight
and a Christian King ; he could be princely in his
benefactions, and was capable of generous impulses and
genuine remorse. But with all this he had no command
over the natural impetuosity of his character, and was
often the prey of the most violent passions. One day he
even drew his sword and threatened the Papal Legate,
who had dared to take his father's part against him.
It was well known, also, that he hesitated at no unjust
and oppressive measures to secure the necessary funds
for his warlike enterprises. Therefore there was much
fear mixed with the hopes which greeted his accession
to the throne, a fear which even the good impression
made by his first acts could not entirely dispel.

Richard began well by asking to receive public
absolution for the crime of making war upon his father,
and by sending his mother, Queen Eleanor, before him
to England, with power to release all prisoners who
were unjustly detained, and to pardon all political

2 6o RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND.

offences. On the 3rd of September, 1189, he was
crowned at Westminster Abbey, by Baldwin, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, in the presence of the Bishops
and Barons of England. He then took the triple oath,
by which he engaged to do all in his power to secure
peace to the Church and all Christian people, to defend
the property of each one of his subjects against all
unlawful claims or spoliation, and to unite mercy with
justice in administering the laws. Before placing the
crown on his head, the Archbishop solemnly adjured
him not to take upon himself the royal dignity unless
he was prepared faithfully to keep these sacred pro-
mises. Therefore, it was not merely an empty form of
words, but a solemn undertaking, by which the King
assumed the principal obligations of his exalted posi-
tion, in the sense in which they were understood by the
Church, who is the guardian and avenger of the rights
of her Christian children. Among the Bishops who
were present at this imposing ceremony St. Hugh was
to be seen, doubtless anticipating new struggles in the
future, and determined always to act in the spirit of
those words of his Lord : *' Render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar's ; and to God, the things that are
God's."

On the day after the coronation and unction of
the new King, the Bishops and Barons of England
assembled early in the morning to do homage to their
Sovereign. They had, however, to wait a long time for
the appearance of one prelate, and that was the Bishop
of Lincoln. They sent to know the cause of this delay,
and were told that the man of God had begun the day
as usual by saying Mass, with his wonted deliberation
and devotion, and had then duly set out for the palace ;
but on his way thither he came upon the corpse of a
man, lying unburied in the streets, who had been killed
the day before in a tumult that had broken out against

RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND. 261

the Jews. Immediately, according to his usual custom,
St. Hugh left everything else to perform the last offices
of charity to the dead. He inquired if the dead man
was a Christian, and receiving an answer in the affir-
mative, sent to buy a large piece of stuff, in which he
himself helped to wrap the body. The Bishop and his
attendants then carried the dead man to the cemetery,
dug a grave, performed all the last rites, and finally
proceeded on their way to the palace. As it happened,
Richard himself had kept the whole assembly waiting
for hours, and St. Hugh was in time to be introduced
into his presence with the rest of the Bishops. 1

We do not know if this incident came to the ears
of Richard I., or if he showed any annoyance at so
strange a proceeding. But, at least, he might conclude
from it that the Bishop of Lincoln, however faithful he
might be to his King, would always put the service of
Christ, his Lord and Master, in the first place. More-
over, at this time Richard was in favourable dispositions
for appreciating the sincerity of a man like St. Hugh.
He was on the eve of setting out for the Holy Land,
and it was surely an act of true faith and devotion,
which mere love of adventure can hardly explain, thus
to leave his country at the very beginning of his reign
for the dangers and hardships of a Crusade, especially
as there was a chance of never returning at all, or
returning only to find his throne occupied oy a rival.

Richard remained in England but four months after
his coronation, and then set out for Normandy, there
to concert arrangements with the King of France as to
their joint departure for the Holy Land. In obtaining
recruits for his army, he found a powerful auxiliary in
Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, who preached the
Crusade with apostolic eloquence, first to the nobles

1 Giraldus Cambrensis, Vita S. Hugonis, Dis. i. ch. vii. ; Vita Metrica,
vv. 1006 1015.

262 RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND.

and gentlemen assembled at Northampton, and after-
wards in most of the counties of England, and especially
in Wales, where great enthusiasm was kindled. So
ardent was the spirit of faith among the country people,
that in some places whole villages were depopulated
through their male inhabitants enlisting under the
banner of the Cross, 'and the women had to hide the
clothes of their husbands and sons, to prevent them
from following the universal example. Even miracles
were said to have been worked, evidencing the holiness
of the cause and the zeal of the Archbishop. Amongst
others, an old woman, who had been blind for three
years, so Giraldus assures us, sent her son to obtain a
small piece of the Archbishop's robe. As he was
unable to penetrate the crowd which surrounded the
prelate, the young man thought he would bring his
mother a clod of earth upon which the Archbishop had
been standing, and which retained the print of his foot.
The old woman placed the clod of earth over her eyes,
and her sight was instantly restored. 1 The labours of
Baldwin were crowned by an heroic end. He went to
the Holy Land shortly before King Richard I., dis-
tinguished himself by conspicuous bravery before the
walls of Acre, and died soon afterwards, a victim to his
devotion, under the banner of the Cross which he had
so valiantly jmfurled.

It does not belong to our present history to relate
how King Richard prolonged his preparations until the
month of July, 1190, nor how he was still detained for

1 These details are taken from the curious account of the preaching of
Baldwin, embodied by Giraldus Cambrensis in his Itincrjrinm Cumbria;,
pt. i. ch. xi. Cf. Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, vol. ii. ; Pieces
Justificative^, n. 16. As Giraldus prefaces this story with the account of
a small miracle worked by himself on the same occasion, his evidence
must be received with a certain amount of caution. Giraldus was not a
bad man, but he was not quite the sort of person whom one expects to
find working miracles. [Eo.J

RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND. 263

a long time in the island of Sicily, where he had rather
a fierce encounter with King Tancred. But there are
two facts belonging to this period of his life which
may be noticed here as throwing light upon the more
religious side of Richard's character. One was the
confirmation of the annuity bequeathed by his father
to the Carthusians. 1 The deed of confirmation (which is
dated Rouen, March i8th, 1190) shows that Richard,
in the midst of his preparations for war, did not forget
the power of prayer, and desired to obtain the blessing
of Heaven upon his enterprise. It seems very probable
that this kindly act of justice was prompted by con-
sideration for St. Hugh, if not done directly at his
request.

The other fact which deserves mention was the
public confession of Richard, during his stay in Sicily.
It would seem that one day Divine grace penetrated
the heart of the warrior- King, and that he saw for the
first time all the enormity of the sins of his past life.
With the impulsiveness which was part of his character,
he gave orders to all the Bishops who were with him at
Messina, to assemble in a chapel of the palace. He
then presented himself humbly before them, and kneel-
ing down, accused himself aloud, in the presence of all,
of his many crimes and offences against God. The
Bishops enjoined him a penance, and for a while at
least there was a change in his conduct which showed
that this conversion had not been a mere pretence. 2

In the month of June, 1191, after having conquered
the island of Cyprus on his way, Richard at last joined
the King of France before the walls of Acre. The
French King had been waiting for the arrival of his
ally to begin a new and more vigorous assault upon
the town, which had so long defied capture. The two

1 Annul. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 93.
2 Roger de Hoveclen, vol. iii. p. 74 ; Baronius, Annal. ad an. 1190.

264 RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND.

monarchs and their armies vied with each other in
courage and determination, until the city at last sur-
rendered, after a defence of nearly three years. During
this time Acre had been the rallying-point alike for the
troops of Saladin as for the multitude of champions of
the Cross who had flocked thither from every country
in Europe. More than a hundred skirmishes and
nine pitched battles preceded the capitulation, and
the conquest of Jerusalem would have then proved a
comparatively easy task, if it had not been for the
quarrels which arose between the two monarchs. Philip
Augustus of France, who would not or could not
co-operate amicably with Richard, left Palestine in
haste, and returned to his own country.

The English King, being now left in sole command,
remained for more than a year in the Holy Land,
multiplying feats of daring and showing an insensibility
to personal danger which proved him worthy of the
surname by which he is known in history. After
having completely crushed the army of Saladin at the
Battle of Arsur, fought on September yth, 1191, he
wrote to the Abbot of Clairvaux that " for forty years
the Sultan had never experienced a like disaster, and
that he was now quite unable to meet the Christians in
open field, but was obliged to lie in ambush, waiting
for them to fall into his snares." 1 Later on, when
the news came that the Mahometans had taken Jaffa,
Richard hastened there with seven galleys, plunged
into the surf to lead his troops to land, and forced the
infidels to come out of the town and engage in combat
with his small army. He fought in the centre of his
knights with such fury and dauntless courage, that a
brother of Saladin who was present could not contain
his admiration, and in the midst of the battle sent him
a gift of two splendid Arabian horses. A few days
1 Rironius, Annul, ad an. 1191, nn. 17, 18.

RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND. 265

after this, Richard, at the head of a mere handful of
brave followers, attacked seven thousand horsemen,
rode straight up to their chief, and cut him down with
a single sword-thrust, before the eyes of his panic-
stricken army.

These were the kind of exploits by which Richard
of the Lion Heart acquired his great renown, not only
in Europe and among Christian warriors, but also
throughout the East. Half a century after his death,
his name was still spoken by the Moslems with bated
breath ; mothers used it to their naughty children when
they wished to frighten them, and horsemen cried out
to their steeds when they shied at some obstacle in
the road : " Dost thou then see King Richard before
thee?"

But notwithstanding all this glory, the Third
Crusade failed of the result for which it was organized.
Jerusalem still remained in the hands of Saladin, who
simply granted the Crusaders a truce for three years
and free access to the Holy Sepulchre. It would be
unjust to attribute this ill-success entirely to Richard ;
but there is no doubt that he knew better how to
conquer than how to profit by his victories. There
was more in him of the knight-errant than the general,
and his fiery temperament provoked the hostility of
many who should have been his friends and allies. But
in the end, one of these adversaries threw all Richard's
misdeeds into the shade by a disgraceful attack upon
the person of the King of England, which caused con-
sternation and horror throughout the whole of Europe. 1

King Richard left Palestine on the gth of October,
1192, with these words of final farewell on his lips:

1 The tendency of recent historical investigations has been rather to
palliate and excuse the action of Leopold and Henry VI. A good
summary of the question may be found in the work of Father K. A.
Kneller, S.J., Des Richard Lbwenhcrz deutsche Gefangenschaft, Cf E. R.
Kindt, Grunde der Gefangenschaft Richards 1, von ngland,[ED.]

266 RICHARD I. OP ENGLAND.

" Sacred Land ! I leave thee to the care of Him who
is all-powerful : may He spare my life, so that I may
return once more and deliver thee from the infidel
yoke ! " He had the misfortune to be overtaken by a
terrible storm, and to be ship\vrecked off the coast of
Istria, between Aquilea and Venice. A short time
afterwards, he fell into the hands of Duke Leopold
of Austria, who had been his companion during the
Crusade, and who was filled with bitter resentment for
an insult which he conceived Richard had put on him.
To satisfy his vengeance, the German Prince forgot the
respect which was due to a brother-Sovereign, and also
to the heroism of the bravest of the Crusaders. He
even had the baseness to sell his royal captive for
/~6o,ooo to the Emperor Henry VI., who kept him in
chains like a common criminal. 1

Richard bore his misfortunes nobly. Even in fetters
he remained every inch a King, and when brought
before the Diet of Haguenau, 2 he defended himself with
such manly and touching eloquence, that the Emperor

1 The first of these two statements is hardly accurate. Duke Leopold
was not to be paid this sum of ico.ooo marks, or about ,60,000, for
surrendering his prisoner to the Emperor, but it was stipulated in the
agreement between them that the Emperor was not to release the King of
England without the payment of a ransom of 100,000 marks, and that half
of this was to be handed over to the Archduke. Moreover, a portion of
this sum was to form the dower of a princess of Brittany, Richard's niece,
who was to marry the Archduke's son. The agreement is printed in
Kneller, Des Richard Lowenherz deutsche Gcfangenschaft, p. 123. Again,
there seems to be some doubt as to the fact of Richard's having actually
been kept in irons. Queen Eleanor, indeed, asserts it in one of her
letters to the Pope - Filinm mciim . . . vincitlis alli^atum hnpcratori
vendiditand the statement is found in many English chroniclers ; but
there is contradictory evidence on the other side, both with regard to the
Emperor and the Archduke, e.g. , Diceto (p. 106) : Qui licet pedes regis in
compedibus non humilini'crit ; Coggfshall : Dux regcm strum Iwnorificc
deduxit ; Chron. Mailros : (Imperator) reverentcr serv>irif cunt. See
Kneller, op. cit. pp. 31 and 56. [Eo.]

* This scene seems to have taken place at Speyer.

RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND. 267

relented, ordered his irons to be struck off, and con-
sented to negotiate for his ransom.

England had not been slow in manifesting her
attachment for her unfortunate monarch. The Barons
renewed their oath of allegiance ; the Bishops assembled
at Oxford, and sent delegates to console and assist him.
Queen Eleanor demanded and obtained from Pope
Celestine III. a sentence of excommunication and inter-
dict against the Duke of Austria. And the Emperor
was threatened with a similar penalty if he did not set
his illustrious prisoner at liberty.

It required all these efforts, and more, to bring
about the final deliverance of Richard. The ransom
demanded was a hundred thousand marks, and as it
was impossible for the English to collect this enormous
sum at once, hostages were sent to guarantee its pay-
ment in course of time. The King, who had been a
prisoner for more than a year, was set free at last, to
the great joy of all the generous hearts throughout
Christendom, which had been indignant at his ini-
quitous detention. His own faithful subjects received
him rapturously when, on the i3th of March, 1194, he
once more set foot upon his native land. Both his
exploits and his sufferings served to surround him with
a halo of glory which has never been wholly dispelled.

Towards the end of the following year, the Duke of
Austria had his foot crushed by a horse, and died of
the after effects of this accident, which was regarded
as the manifestation of the Divine displeasure. Before
his death he obtained absolution from the Pontifical
excommunication, but only on condition of his setting
at liberty the hostages of the King of England, and
restoring the unjust ransom he had extorted from his
illustrious captive. 1 The Emperor of Germany also

1 The restitution was apparently only intended to apply to that portion
of the money already paid which still remained in his hands, yet nothing

268 RICHARD I. OF ENGLAND.

acknowledged his injustice on his death-bed, and
ordered a similar restitution. Thus, under the influ-
ence of Papal authority, right triumphed and reparation
was made, so far at least as to satisfy the public con-
science and give a not unprofitable lesson to the other
crowned heads of Europe.

of this seems ever to have been returned. On the other hand, there
were 21,000 marks which had not yet been discharged by the English
treasury. The hostages were the pledge for the payment of this sum, and
when they were released there was of course no longer any question of
handing over the money which their detention guaranteed. (See Kneller,
p. 105.) Four years later, Innocent III., at the request of Richard, was
still endeavouring to secure, from the heirs of the Emperor and of the
Archduke, the restitution of the ransom which had been paid. (Innocent III.
Kegesta, vol. i. pp. 203 206. Migne.) [Eo.]

CHAPTER II.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 1

FROM the time of the departure of King Richard for
Normandy, and afterwards for the Holy Land, until
the end of his captivity, England was in an extremely
unsettled state. In all the various disturbances which
then took place, the Bishop of Lincoln seems to have
exercised a beneficial influence, but in none was his
independent fearlessness of , character more strikingly
seen than in the popular riots against the Jews which
marked the beginning of the reign. We do not, it is
true, possess as much information as we might desire
about these occurrences, but the main fact of St. Hugh's
championship of this proscribed race stands out dis-
tinctly enough.

[It seems advisable, before going further, to say
something about the position of the Jews in England,
and especially in Lincoln, at the time when St. Hugh
befriended them. Although the Jews formed numeri-
cally a very small community, not probably amounting
to more than about 2,500 souls that is, about i in 700
of the whole population of the Kingdom, their relative
wealth and political importance can hardly be exagger-
ated. 2 One simple fact may serve to set in the strongest

1 In the early part of this chapter the text of the French Life has not
been strictly adhered to, and large additions have been made to it. [Eo.]

2 Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England, p. 382. The population of
England at large probably lay between 1,500,000 and 2,500,000. M. Paul
Fabre, in an article on Lt Denier de St. Pierre (Melanges G. B. de Rossi ,

270 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

light the extent to which the money of the country was
in their hands. When Henry II., in 1188, exacted a
tithe of movable property, he required the Jews to pay
as their share, not a tenth, but a fourth of their chattels.
Now, if we may trust the statement of Gervase of
Canterbury, the Jews in England on this occasion were
forced to pay "60,000, and the Christians only some
jo,ooo. 1 In other words, the property in Jewish
hands was rated at "240,000, and that in Christian
hands at "700,000, and, justly or unjustly, the State
was assuming so far as movable goods were concerned
that the average possessions of two or three hundred
Christians were only equivalent to the average posses-
sions of a single Jew.

The Jews were, in fact, the bankers of the country.
At a time when specie was almost unattainable, they
alone were able to find the hard cash, without which
even in those days all great undertakings, whether it
was a question of building a cathedral or levying
a war, were equally brought to a standstill. By
the Kings of England the Jews were encouraged
and protected. William of Newburgh, a contem-
porary author by no means extravagant in his anti-
Jewish prejudices, says of Henry II., for instance:
" He favoured more than was right a people
treacherous and unfriendly to Christians, namely,
Jewish usurers, because of the great advantages which
he saw were to be had from their usuries ; so much
so that they became proud and stiff-necked against
Christians, and brought many exactions upon them." 5
The curious state of the English law with regard to

1892), inclines to the higher estimate, and Dr. Liebermann, in th
Historical Review, while disagreeing with his reasoning, is inclined to
accept the same figures.

1 Rolls Series, i. p. 422.

- William of Newburgh, Rolls Series, i. p. 280.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 271

the property of Jews must naturally have led English
monarchs to treat with very tender consideration the
geese which laid so many golden eggs. According to
the best modern authorities, the Jews stood to the King
in all matters of property precisely in the relation of
the villein to his lord. 1 In strict law, what a Jew
acquired he acquired, not for himself, but for his
Sovereign, and although as a matter of favour and
policy a Jew was not ordinarily molested in the enjoy-
ment of his gains, it must have been pleasant for a
juristically minded monarch like Henry II. to feel that
these very wealthy subjects held their riches only upon
sufferance, and that their money was almost as securely
his, whenever he chose to apply pressure, as if it had
been lodged already in the royal treasury. 2 It would
seem as if the Jews were almost all traders or money-
lenders. We meet but a few isolated instances of
members of that community who are described as
exercising the profession of physicians or scriveners.
How far the charge of gross extortion so frequently
made against them is justified it is not easy to say.
A Jew in lending his money to a Christian most
certainly exposed himself in these troublous times to
no inconsiderable risk of not getting it back again.
At the same time it is equally beyond question that

1 Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, i. pp. 451, seq It
followed from this doctrine that while in some sense the Jew was the slave
of the King, in relation to all other men he was free, and the law upheld
him against their oppression.

2 This doctrine explains and extenuates what might at first sight seem
the gross injustice committed when the King, for some reason or other,
"seized into his hands" the debts due to one of his Jews by Christian
debtors and perhaps, for a consideration, generously remitted the whole.
An instance of this is to be found in the charter of Richard I. to the
Cistercian Abbots of Rievaulx, New Minster, &c. , who owed 6,400 marks
to Aaron the Jew, and obtained from the King a condonation of the whole
in exchange for 1,000 marks. (Memorials of Fountains Abbey, Surtees
Society, ii. p. 18.)

272 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

the rate of interest exacted was enormous. Twopence
a week per pound, i.e., forty-three per cent, per annum,
was very common, even where good security was given,
and we hear elsewhere of fourpence a week, i.e., eighty-
six per cent. 1 The result was that nearly all the
barons and knights and men of any little consideration
who wanted to conduct a lawsuit or build a castle or go
upon a Crusade, found themselves in less than no time
head over ears in debt. It was probably the angry
chafing of the upper classes against this sort of
bondage, brought to a head by the imperative need
of raising money for the Crusade, which had most to
do with the outbreak against the Jews in the first year
of Richard's reign. The populace, however, in a certain
spirit of loyalty to the Faith which seemed to them to
involve the hatred of the whole race of those who had
put our Lord to death, a spirit heightened by the
Crusading ardour of the time as well as by many
gruesome stories of the murder of Christian children,-
formed a ready instrument in the hands of any design-
ing person who had sufficient fanaticism or malice to
fan this smouldering hatred into a flame.

In Lincoln, the Jewish community both for wealth
and numbers was the most prosperous in England, with
the single exception of London. To judge by what
appears a very fair test the names of Jews entered

1 Cf. Jacobs, Jews in Angevin England, p. 308, and Round, Ancient
Charters, Pipe Roll Society, p. 82.

2 Little St. William of Norwich (f 1144), the recently discovered narra-
tive of whose martyrdom, as told by Thomas of Monmouth, has been
published by Dr. Jessop and Mr. James, was the earliest in date of the long
series of boy martyrs who were believed to have been sacrificed by the
Jews. A tecond English example, also prior to the accession of King
Richard, was that of little Robert of Hury-St.-Kdmunds in 1181. Another
well-known instance is that of St. Richard of Pontoise in 1179, the cult us
of whom we know on contemporary authority to have begun in Paris
within a year of his death. For some remarks on these alleged martyrdoms,
see note at the end of the chapter.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 273

in the Pipe Rolls we have as many as 82 heads of
families from Lincoln, paying their contributions into
the Treasury, as compared with no in London; while
the town which stands next highest on the list is
Norwich, with only 42. 1 Jewish traditions, in fact, are
still strong in Lincoln. The Jewish quarter, known as
the Dernestall, was on the southern slope of the hill
crowned by the Cathedral, and close under the Castle
and the Bishop's palace. The narrow passage by
which this Jewry opened upon the High Street still
exists. It is called the " Strait," and at the mouth of
the Strait stood the Dernestall Lock, where in old times
a gate was locked at night, 2 to confine the detested
Jews within their own narrow limits. Hereabouts it
was that, fifty years after the death of Bishop St. Hugh,
a little namesake of his was found murdered martyred,
as it was believed, in hatred of Christianity.

O yonge Hugh of Lincoln slayn also

With cursed Jewes, as it is notable,

For it nis but a litel whyle ago,

Pray eek for us, we sinful folk unstable

That of his mercy God so merciable

On us his grete mercy multiplye

For reverence of his moder Marye. Amen. 3

The bones of little St. Hugh still lie in the south
aisle of the Cathedral, and when they were discovered
and examined at the end of the last century, the
Protestant antiquaries, who published a report of the
discovery, thought that on one of the metatarsal bones
of the feet could be detected the traces of the nails
with which he was crucified. 4 Two of the houses are
still standing which were occupied by Jews when
our Bishop Hugh first came to be enthroned in his

1 Jacobs, The Jews in Angevin England, p. 382.
2 Variables, Walks through the Streets of Lincoln, p. 28.

3 Chaucer, The Prioress Tale.
4 See Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, vol. ii. p. Ixviii.

s

274 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

Cathedral. They are amongst the oldest specimens
of domestic architecture in England, and one of them
was the dwelling of the most famous Jew of that age,
the great Aaron of Lincoln. His financial operations
were on a gigantic scale. Even the proud Abbey of
St. Albans, like many another religious house, was so
deeply in his debt that Aaron came there one day and
roughly told the monks that the very shrines of their
saints had been built by him, and that he could sell
them up if he pleased. He died about twelve months
after St. Hugh was consecrated to his episcopal see ;
but we are told of Aaron's son, who inherited in great
part his father's wealth, that he was free to come and
go in the Gilbertine Priory of Bullington, just as if it
belonged to him which indeed it almost did. 1 ]

The outbreak against the Jews began in London,
only a few hours after the coronation of King Richard,
who had forbidden them to appear in his presence on
that day. Several individuals amongst them, in defi-
ance, or more probably in ignorance, of this prohibition,
made their way into the palace.' 2 They were recognized
by the crowd, who drove them out, pursued them, and
slaughtered them without mercy. A false report was
spread that the King had authorized these murders,
whereupon a massacre began which continued until the

1 Archaeological Journal, vol. xxxviii. p. 188. The same Elias, the son
of " Aaron the rich," in 1208 paid 200 marks into the Treasury to have
license to secure payment on 400 charters drawn up by his father in his
lifetime, and a further sum of 200 marks to obtain possession of 40 other
charters. Even though we multiply these sums by 30 or 40, as we should
have to do to obtain any idea of their equivalent value at the present day,
we should still be far from realizing the influence implied by this, in those
days, extraordinary command of ready money.

3 This prohibition seems to have had its origin in the fear cf some
magic spell which the Jews might cast upon the newly-crowned King.
This is suggested by Matthew Paris, and the language of Ephraim ben
Jacob of Bonn, a Jewish chronicler who gives a brief account of the
massacre, points to the same conclusion.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 275

streets of London ran with blood, and which was only
put a stop to at last by the officers of the Crown. The
houses of many Jews were burnt, and the riot was not
suppressed until the next morning. Richard hastened
to issue a proclamation, in which he took the Jews
under his protection, and forbade all violence against
their persons or possessions. But a few months later,
when he was safe out of the kingdom, other similar
disturbances took place in different parts of the country,
culminating in a very deplorable outrage at York. It
is sad to find that in several cases the riots seem to
have been instigated by those who were about to take
part in the Crusade. Most assuredly the cause of the
Master whom they professed to serve was not to be
furthered by such brutal deeds as these. Far from
approving or tolerating these outbreaks of popular
hatred, the Church, speaking by the voice of her
Sovereign Pontiffs and her most illustrious prelates,
had always extended some measure of protection to
the Jews. It is true that she had taken many pre-
cautions which to us may seem excessive against their
obtaining undue influence. She had closed the door
of public offices and appointments against them, as
much as possible ; but while thus endeavouring to
prevent them from doing harm to her own children,
she severely condemned the outrages attempted by the
rapacious or the fanatical against their lives and pro-
perty. The children of Israel themselves have praised
the toleration extended to them, and they have more
than once expressed in earnest terms their gratitude
to various Popes or to individual members of the
Hierarchy.

At the time of the two first Crusades, the Church
had already had occasion to reprove the blind excesses
of the populace, who at the instigation of a few fana-
tical ringleaders, had singled out the Jews for attack.

276 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

" What then ! " exclaimed St. Bernard, in reproof of
one of these firebrands ; " does not the Church triumph
far more effectively over the Jews, by gentle persuasion
and the force of truth, than by the sword of perse-
cution ? Is it in vain that she calls upon the Lord our
God, by incessant prayer, to take away the veil from
their eyes, and show them the light of His faith ?
There would be no meaning in the prayers of the
Church if she were to despair of the ultimate con-
version of the unbelievers for whom she prays. She
continues her prayers in hope, trusting in the mercy of
Him who returns good for evil, and love for hatred.
What says Holy Scripture? ' Slay them not.' 1 And
again : ' And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is
written : There shall come out of Sion He that shall
deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' "

The letter in which the great Abbot of Clairvaux
thus expresses the mind of the Church towards the
people of Israel, was addressed to Henry, Archbishop
of Mainz, who had distinguished himself by his brave
defence of the proscribed outcasts. He received many
of them into his house, and used every effort in his
power to save them from death.

When troubles of the same kind arose in England,
similar generosity and charity were displayed. St. Hugh
of Lincoln needed no one to remind him what his duty
was in such circumstances, and no power on earth
could prevent him from following the course which he
believed to be right.

It was at Stamford, on the 5th of March, 1190, that
the attacks on the Jews began, in his diocese. A fair
was being held in the town, and great crowds of people
had assembled. A number of young Crusaders who

1 Romans xi. 26.

a History of St. Bernard, letter v. ch. iii. By Pcre Ratisbonne ;
St. Bernard, Epistol. 365.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 277

were about to sail for Palestine had gathered there
from different parts of the country. "They were
indignant," says the chronicler, " that the enemies of
the Cross of Christ should possess so much, when they
had not enough for the expenses of their journey." 1
Accordingly, in the midst of the crowd and confusion
of the fair, these young men flung themselves upon the
Jewish quarter, killed many of the inhabitants, and
plundered their houses, getting away safely with their
booty. The news of these riotous proceedings was
soon carried to Lincoln ; the whole city was greatly
agitated, and a conspiracy was formed to follow the
example already given by Stamford. The mob
assembled, and the rising took place ; but, fortunately,
little harm was done. The Jews were warned in time,
and most of them took refuge, with their treasures, in
the royal castle. There seems reason to believe that
to the Bishop of Lincoln belongs the chief credit of
putting a stop to this state of excitement, which might
have resulted, as it did later on at York, in the siege
of the citadel, and in a terrible amount of bloodshed. 2

We will here give an account of what took place,
in the words of the chaplain and biographer of the
Saint: 3 "Let us now speak of his courage, when the

1 William of Newburgh, vol. i. p. 310.

2 See William of Newburgh, Hist. Rer. Anglic, vol. i. pp. 310
322. That the Lincoln Jews did not entirely escape in the outbreak
directed against them, seems to be clear from the fact that a list of
eighty names of Lincoln burghers is to be found in the Pipe Rolls of
3 Rich. I., who were to be amerced for the disturbances. Further
reference is made to these amerciaments in 6 Rich. I. (See Archaeological
Review, vol. ii. pp. 406, seq. nn. 117 and 142.) Moreover, William of
Newburgh distinctly states ' ' that much investigation was carried on by
the royal officials" a mark of exceptional zeal for justice, in which we
may perhaps trace the hand of St. Hugh. [Eo.]

3 The author of the French Life is proceeding here upon the assump-
tion that the description of St. Hugh's intrepid bearing quoted above from
the Magna Vita, most probably refers to the time of the popular outbreak
against the Jews. It should be noticed that St. Hugh's chaplain does not

278 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

lawlessness of proud subjects had to be put down, and
of the daring bravery with which he threw himself,
unarmed, into the midst of a furious crowd of mail-clad
warriors. In his own Cathedral of Lincoln, first of all,
then in the district of Holland, and afterwards at
Northampton, he stood, bare-headed and undaunted,
in the midst of a forest of swords brandished by angry
men. And even this is less than the truth. He did
not merely stand proudly erect, but striding hither and
thither amongst them, his fiery words flashed out in
entire recklessness of the consequences, for he wielded

anywhere state this. He only says that the Bishop's intrepidity in the face
of a hostile mob was manifested especially on three occasions : first at
Lincoln, in the Cathedral, and afterwards in Holland (a district of Lincoln-
shire), and at Northampton ; and he adds rather provokingly that he could
say a good deal about the causes of these riots, but that the story might
prove tedious. The Jews are not mentioned in this chapter, and the only
allusion made to them in the Magna Vita is a reference to the grief which
they displayed at St. Hugh's death. None the less, I think that our
author is right in believing that these three signal instances of the Saint's
personal courage were probably all connected in some way with his
championship of the persecuted Jews. We know from William of
Newburgh that notable outbreaks took place at Stamford, at Lincoln,
and at Northampton ; and Stamford, while it is not situated in the
district now called Holland, is close upon the outskirts of that rather
vaguely defined tract of country. Moreover, William of Newburgh
expressly tells us that it was St. Hugh who put a stop to the cultus of
the pretended martyr at Northampton, and this was obviously an act
which, at such a time of fanatical excitement, was bound to provoke
resentment on the part of those interested in exploiting anti-Jewish pre-
judice. Lastly, I think we may find an explanation of the reticence of
St. Hugh's chaplain, and of his reluctance to exhibit his hero as a protector
of the Jews, in the fact that just about the time that the Magna Vita was
given to the world a reaction was setting in against the favour shown to
them during the minority of Henry III. "Stephen Langton, Archbishop
of Canterbury, in conjunction with Hugh de Wells, Bishop of Lincoln,
published a general prohibition by which all persons were forbidden to
buy anything of the Jews, or to sell them victuals or necessaries, or to have
any communication with them, declaring that they were persons who by
the laws of the Church were excommunicated for their infidelity and
usury." (Margoliouth, History of the Jews in Great Britain, vol. i. p. 138.)
-[ED.]

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 279

the sword of spiritual censures against these furious
plotters, and delivered the contumacious among them
over to Satan, * for the destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit might be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.' 1 His courage was all the more admirable,
because many of his attendants, who were sufficiently
brave at other times, gave way to terror. They were
not content with flying to the altars for protection, but
they hardly thought themselves safe when they were
actually hiding under the table of the Lord itself. 2
Hugh remained alone, and continued to lash with his
indignant words the ruffians who had drawn their
swords upon him. Thanks to this determined courage,
to the protection of the holy angels, and to the Divine
armour which clothed him, the rioters gave way, cowed
and irresolute. At Lincoln it was a mob of clerics
and laymen, in Holland a band of armed knights, at
Northampton the angry townsfolk ; but all alike yielded,
violent and furious as they were, before the calm
intrepidity of this one pastor of souls." " Even at the
risk of his life," adds the biographer a little later, " this
disciple of the Good Shepherd would not allow his
flock to stray from the right path without lifting up his
voice to recall them." 3

We may be inclined to wonder why the Cathedral
of Lincoln should have become the scene of such a
tumult. It is probable that the Jews had deposited
there, as in the safest place they knew of, the deeds
connected with their loans and mortgages. This is

1 i Cor. v. 5.

2 This passage is interesting for its bearing upon the disputed question
of the shape of English mediaeval altars. It is quite clear that the altars of
Lincoln Cathedral in the twelfth century cannot all have been solid blocks
of masonry. Some of them must have been table- shaped tisch-formigen,
to enable the attendants of St. Hugh to creep in under the altar-slab. (See
The Month, February and March, 1897.) [^ D> ]

3 Magna Vita, bk, iv. ch. 4.

2 8o TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

what they had clone in the case of York Minster, but
there the guardians of the Cathedral were compelled by
the mob to give up all these papers, and allow a huge
bonfire to be made of them in the very nave of the
church itself. 1 If the rioters had the intention of doing
the same at Lincoln, the intervention and the attitude
of St. Hugh are sufficiently explained. 2

At Holland, which is a district in the county of
Lincoln, it was a band of knights and squires milites
et armigeri who troubled the public peace ; 3 and there
St. Hugh was not without a valiant protector, for his
cousin, William of Avalon, a brave and honourable
gentleman, was in his company, and observing that
one furious rioter was aiming a blow at the Bishop,
he wrested the sword from his hand, and was about

1 " But when the slaughter was over, the conspirators immediately went
to the Cathedral and caused the terrified guardians, with violent threats, to
hand over the records of the debts placed there, by which the Christians
were oppressed by the royal Jewish usurers, and thereupon destroyed these
records of profane avarice in the middle of the church with the sacred fires,
to release both themselves and many others. Which being done, those of
the conspirators who had taken the Cross went on their proposed journey
before any inquest, but the rest remained in the country for fear of an
inquiry." (William of Newburgh, i. p. 322.) This story indicates very
clearly how largely the outbreak against the Jews was due to the desire
of the nobles and knights who owed them money to shake themselves
free from this encumbrance and to destroy the record of their debts. [ED.]

2 This suggestion seems the more probable from the fact that in the
reign of John we find a mandate in the Close Rolls, addressed to
St. Hugh's successor, William of Blois, and ordering him not to permit
the property of the Jews to be deposited in the Cathedral (Feb. 28, 1205).
(See Jacobs, Jews in Angevin England, p. 237.) [Eo.]

3 I must own that there is much to suggest that this disturbance in
Holland should be identified not with an anti-Jewish riot, but with the
violent dispute between the Monasteries of Croyland and Spalding
(Hollandenses), of which such an interesting account is preserved in the
Historia Croylandensis. The prominence of the knights in this riot is
especially noted (Gale, pp. 453, 454). We can well believe that in such an
unseemly feud between two religious houses, St. Hugh would have inter-
posed in the cause of peace, but there is no mention of any interference
on his pan in the Croyland Chronicle. [Eo.]

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 281

to execute summary vengeance when Hugh interceded
for his would-be murderer. He had no wish to see any
blood shed in his defence, and contented himself with
making use of the spiritual sword of the censures of the
Church. St. Hugh, however, considered these canonical
weapons to be more than a match for any physical
violence. His voice, so his chaplain tells us, in threaten-
ing such penalties was simply awe-inspiring, and he
expatiated with supreme contempt upon the powerless-
ness of sword or coat of mail to stand against the
spiritual blows with which he who spoke in the name
of the Church could smite body and soul, alike in this
world and the world to come.

The riot at Northampton, which occurred a short
time after the two we have been speaking of, was
also connected with the Jews. With regard to this,
more precise details have happily come down to us.
Immediately after the disturbance at Stamford, one of
the rioters named John, who had gathered an immense
amount of plunder from the houses of the Jews, made
off to Northampton with his booty. Being as reckless
as he was unprincipled, the young man there entrusted
part of his money to another scoundrel who, tempted
by the sight of the gold, killed him secretly to obtain
possession of the whole of it, and threw his body
outside the walls of the town during the night. In
the morning the corpse was discovered and recognized,
but the murderer had taken flight, and was not even
suspected. Naturally the imagination of the populace,
being very much excited by the crime, immediately
attributed it to the Jews, and the dead man soon came
to be considered as a martyr who had fallen a victim to
the hate of this detested race. His tomb became a
place of pilgrimage, and was frequented by many
mistaken devotees. Several miracles were reported to
have taken place, and votive offerings were showered

282 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

upon the sepulchre of this worthless incendiary, who
had met the just reward of his crimes. The inhabitants
of the town, deriving great pecuniary benefits from the
new place of pilgrimage, were deaf to all representa-
tions and remonstrances. In the end, however, the
affair came to the ears of the Bishop of Lincoln, and
he was not long in arriving at a decision. He set
out at once for Northampton, to put a stop to the
scandal. There he met with lively resistance from
the disappointed townspeople, but it was only another
occasion for the display of his usual courage. He
went straight to the tomb of the pretended martyr,
tore down the votive offerings which adorned it, and
forbade, under pain of excommunication, that any
further cultus should henceforth be rendered to one so
utterly unworthy of it. His words were listened to
and obeyed ; the superstition died out, to the con-
solation of right thinking men and to the relief of the
unhappy Jews, who were certain of having to suffer
sooner or later in the cause of the pretended martyr.
It was, no doubt, the remembrance of this, and other
instances of St. Hugh's impartial justice, which led the
sons of Israel to give public testimony of their sorrow
at the funeral of this blessed Saint. Certainly he had
no desire of ingratiating himself with them, or of
excusing their real misdeeds. He simply obeyed the
voice of conscience in thus repressing popular violence,
and the traditions of the Church, which has always
been careful to protect the lives of the Jews, while
resisting their real or fancied efforts at proselytism,
must have influenced him strongly on the same side.
Troubles of another kind exposed St. Hugh to less
danger, but caused him still greater anxiety. Instead
of seeing his path clearly marked out for him, he had
to steer his way as well as he could through the count-
less political intrigues in which this reign was so

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 283

prolific. We cannot doubt that he must have gone
through many of those hours of mental suffering in
which it is far more difficult to see where duty lies than
to carry it into execution.

A short time after it had served as a refuge for the
Jews, the strong Castle of Lincoln was besieged by
the troops of William of Longchamp, Bishop of Ely
and Chancellor of the realm, 1 whom King Richard had
invested with the fullest powers to govern England
during his absence on the Crusade. The Governor of
the fortress, Gerard of Camville, had refused to give up
the keys to the Chancellor, and appealed for protection
to Prince John, the King's brother. This was the
signal for a final rupture between the two persons of
highest rank and position in the country. But nothing
can be more intricate or obscure than the different
accounts of these political factions. After reading the
various historians who have treated of this subject, it
is impossible to form any certain judgment upon the
conduct of the Chancellor. If he had the greater
number of the Bishops and Barons of England arrayed
against him, he was not without some illustrious
supporters. Peter of Blois warmly took his part, and
when the dispute was referred to Rome, the cause of
the Bishop of Ely found favour in the eyes of Pope
Celestine III., who had previously re-appointed him
Legate of the Holy See. 2 Notwithstanding this, the
Chancellor was driven out of the kingdom by Prince
John, as the result of an assembly of nobles and
prelates which he had succeeded in gathering together.
The Bishop of Lincoln was present at this assembly,

1 The Chancellor seems to have made two attempts upon Lincoln
Castle, one in the spring, the other after midsummer, 1191. (See Stubbs 1
note to Hoveden, vol. iii. p. 135.) [ED.]

2 There is no evidence of such re-appointment, except the fact that in
the letter of December and to the English Bishops, Celestine describes
him as Legate. (See Stubbs, Epp. Cantuar. p. cxxxiii. note.) [ED.]

284 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

but his attitude was so upright and impartial, that the
Chancellor always preserved a great confidence in him.
This was very clearly shown when Pope Celestine III.,
on the 2nd of December, 1191, wrote a letter to the
Bishops of England, commanding them to pronounce
sentence of excommunication against the persecutors
of his Legate. The Chancellor then addressed himself
to St. Hugh, to make sure of the Pope's instructions
being carried out with firmness and discretion.

In the letter he then wrote, William of Longchamp
compliments the holy Bishop on his reputation for
courage, and goes on to say that " he leaves the care of
the interests of the Church of God, and those of our
lord the King," with great confidence in his hands.
He adds that he has no doubt that " his charity will
devote itself, with the single-mindedness worthy of a
true Bishop, to carry out the instructions issued by the
Holy See and the Legate its representative."

The Chancellor wrote to other Bishops to secure the
same result, but St. Hugh and all the rest seem to have
thought that no action could then be taken. The
Saint's tardiness, however, and the caution he showed
at this critical period, were far from bringing him into
disgrace at Rome. On the contrary, the Holy See took
the first opportunity, as we shall see later on, of giving
proof of the great confidence which Hugh's conduct
had inspired.

The Sovereign Pontiff at that time had a project
in hand which St. Hugh was just the sort of man
to sympathize with. He wished to establish peace
between all Christian nations, that they might con-
centrate their energies upon the overthrow of Islam.
When he heard that King Richard had set out for the
Holy Land, he wrote an urgent letter to the Bishops of
England, recommending them to preach concord, and
to direct against the enemies of the Faith in the East

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 285

that warlike ardour which was so dangerous to the
tranquillity of Church and State at home, or, at best,
was so unprofitably squandered upon jousts and tour-
naments. Unfortunately, it was a hopeless task to try
to make men superior to the miserable interests of
party, in order to enlist their energies in a cause so
exalted as that of the union of Christendom against the
common foe.

In the meantime, at the news of the captivity of
Richard, the internal dissensions of parties in England
assumed a new phase. While John began to lift the
mask, and was no longer ashamed to seek the assist-
ance of Philip Augustus in usurping his brother's
throne, those who had hitherto rallied to his side as
the cause of law and order^ now withdrew their support
and became his avowed and active opponents. The
release of Cceur de Leon, which took place shortly
afterwards, put an end to these disturbances ; but for
the Bishop of Lincoln the return of the King was only
the beginning of fresh trials.

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER II.

The alleged martyrdom by the Jews of such
Christian children as little Hugh of Lincoln, William
of Norwich, Robert of Bury, &c., to which reference
has been made in the course of this chapter, remains
a problem still despite the many attempts to unravel
it which have been made of late years. 1 It may

1 Cf. Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St. William of
Norwich, edited by Jessop and James ; Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, by
Joseph Jacobs, reprinted from the Jewish Chronicle; El Santo Nino,
by Father Fita, S.J., in the Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia,
vol. xi. (1887) ; articles in the Revue des Etudes Juives, e.g. by J. Loeb,
vol. xv. ; H. C. Lea, Chapters from the Religious History of Spain, p. 437 ;
Strack, Der Blutaberglaube ; Baring Gould, Beliefs of the Middle Ages;
and many more.

2 86 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

readily be admitted that no satisfactory evidence has
yet been produced to show that such sacrifices form
any part of Jewish ritual. Judaism as a system can
certainly not be held responsible for these outrages.
None the less, it is very difficult to waive away the
evidence of some Jewish complicity in such murders
by declaring them all to be the fabrication of popular
prejudice. The children were certainly murdered by
somebody, legal investigations were held, testimony was
given by Jews themselves, sometimes apparently with-
out threat of torture. Many writers who are evidently
free from any suspicion of anti-semitic prejudice, own
themselves staggered by the perplexities of the problem.
'* Personally," says a reviewer of Messrs. James and
Jessop's volume on St. William of Norwich, " we have
no faith in these stories, but if any one should ask
how it is possible for educated men of the present
age to believe them, we may refer him to an article
in the Civilta Cattolica for February, 1893, entitled
La Morale Giudaica e il Mistero del Sangue, which un-
doubtedly demonstrates that such stories, whatever
we think of them, are not always malicious lies nor
even the rumours of ignorance and superstition, but
sometimes rest upon evidence not intrinsically beneath
contempt." (The Academy, February 27th, 1897). Again,
Dr. Jessop and Mr. James themselves, while rejecting
the story of a deliberate ritual sacrifice, think it possible
that the boy (St. William) may have been done to death
by a reckless or fanatic Jew. As a reviewer of the
same work in the Athcnxum remarks : " One point might
fairly be made ; the Church was not to blame, nor was
the persecution religious." (April 3oth, 1897.) I am
inclined myself to adopt a suggestion made in the
same review in the Academy, from which I have just
been quoting, to the effect that the use of human
blood taken from some innocent victim, really did

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 287

enter into the magic spells of the professors of the
black art. 1 Sorcery was practised amongst the Jews as
it was practised among Christians, and if Christian
writers can be trusted, a great deal more so. It is quite
possible that some individual Jewish sorcerers may at
all periods have combined this very evil magic with
their religious beliefs. " Since the practice of sorcery
was a fact," says the reviewer in the Academy, "it may
well be that some cases of c ritual murder ' upon the
part of the Jews mingling magic with their Judaism
did positively happen."

It may be noted that the Holy See has never
formally canonized any of these alleged victims of
Jewish malignity, 2 and neither little St. Hugh nor any
of the other children mentioned above, are even com-
memorated in the Mavtyvologiuni Romanum. On the other
hand, many letters have been issued by various Popes
to check the cruelty with which the Jews were perse-
cuted. These instructions provided that the Jews were
not to be forced to receive Baptism against their will,
that they were not to be molested in person or property
without the judgment of a court of law, and that their
cemeteries should not be violated. See Jaffe-Lowenfeld,
Regesta Pontificum, especially nn. 13973 and 16577, and
Potthast, n. 834.

Our Carthusian author seems to have exercised a
wise discretion in dismissing very summarily the
intricate political complications which centre round
the career of the Chancellor, William Longchamp.
Even after all the patient investigation which has been

1 This belief is as old as the time of St. John Chrysostom, who more than
once refers to the magicians who are said to decoy children to their houses and
cut their throats : 'dtrav iroAAol rwv yoijTuv TraiSas \aft6vrzs a.Tro<r<f>d.TT(t)(Tiv.
(In Matt. Horn. 28. Migne, P. G. vol. 57, p. 353. Cf. Horn. II. de Lazaro.
Migne, P.O. vol. 48, p. 983.)

2 Benedict XIV. De Beatif. &c., bk. i. c. 14, n. 5, and bk. iii. c. 15,
nn. 27.

2 88 TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.

devoted to the subject by Sir Francis Palgrave and
Bishop Stubbs, there are many points in the disturbed
politics of the years 1190 1194 which are still very
obscure. The Bishop of Lincoln's relations with the
Chancellor were in no way intimate, and a detailed
account of the latter's proceedings is not required to
illustrate the history of our Saint. On the whole it
would seem that Hugh did his best to avoid active
participation in the disputes between the Chancellor
and Prince John. It is noteworthy that in the final
agreement which followed the siege of Lincoln Castle
we do not find the Bishop of Lincoln's name among the
witnesses. He was present at the general assembly
summoned to meet near Reading, which ended in the
deposition of Longchamp, but the very manner in
which Giraldus refers to his presence there, insinuates
that St. Hugh had not uniformly been acting with them
and that the party of Prince John were very pleased to
have his support. 1 We may be quite sure that St. Hugh
would have been reluctant to connect himself in any
way with the malignant libel against the Chancellor,
which was shortly afterwards published by Hugh de
Nonant, 2 and the fact that Longchamp appealed to
Hugh to execute the Papal Bull, which was practically
the condemnation of the Reading assembly, shows the
high idea which he had of the Saint's impartiality and
singleness of purpose. It is satisfactory to find that
Bishop Stubbs strongly insists upon the unfounded
character of the grosser charges brought by Giraldus
and Hugh de Nonant against Longchamp. " It is," he
says, u simply impossible that such a man as Giraldus
describes, should have been tolerated in an age and

1 Giraldus, Vita Galfridi ; Opera, vol. iv. p. 397. Hugh went on to
London, and was one of the Bishops who interviewed Longchamp in the
Tower. He had also previously excommunicated the Chancellor and his
abettors for his treatment of Archbishop Geoffrey. (Ibid. p. 405. )

a Hoveden, iii. pp. 141, seq.

TROUBLES IN ENGLAND. 289

country in which St. Hugh of Lincoln was religiously
all-powerful. St. Hugh does not seem to have liked
the Chancellor's policy ; their political principles were
opposed, and the Saint took part in the proceedings
against Longchamp in defence of Archbishop Geoffrey,
but their personal relations were not unkind, and the
Chancellor seems to have trusted implicitly in the
Bishop's good-will. The man who would not tolerate
the bones of Fair Rosamond within the choir of
Godstow, would not have hesitated to denounce a
profligate in the sacred offices of legate and bishop." 1

-[ED.]

1 Stubbs, Preface to Hoveden, vol. iii. p. xlii.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE BISHOP
AND THE KING.

THE great anxiety of King Richard, on his return to
England, was to obtain large sums of money, in order
to pay what remained to be paid of his ransom, and
also to defray the cost of a war against the King of
France. He knew that his kingdom had already
suffered much from the enormous demands that had
been made on the public purse, both before the Crusade
and during his captivity. But he reckoned upon the
popularity he had acquired by his feats of arms and
his misfortunes. New taxes were levied upon the
people, in a desperate effort to raise the sum that was
needed, often at the sacrifice of all honour and principle.
His courtiers, instead of protesting against these unjust
measures, only suggested new and equally unscrupulous
ways of filling his coffers. They were glad, therefore,
just at this juncture to discover a means of despoiling
the Bishop of Lincoln, and the fact that they knew
him to be incapable of any concession contrary to his
conscience, probably only added zest to the extortion.

It was suddenly remembered that a custom had
been allowed to fall into disuse which had been
observed in an irregular way by several of St. Hugh's
predecessors. These prelates, with rather short-sighted
generosity, had made an offering to their Sovereign,
from time to time, which came to be regarded as an
annual tribute. It consisted of a magnificent mantle,

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 291

worth a hundred silver marks, lined and trimmed with
sable fur.

St. Hugh was now accused of not having pa*d this
tribute, and he was held responsible, not only for the
arrears during his own episcopate, but for the time
which had elapsed since the accession of his imme-
diate predecessor, Walter of Coutances, who had also
neglected to discharge this alleged feudal service. It
was further pretended that he must make compensation
to his liege lord for the affront offered to the King by
his neglect. Altogether it came to this, that the Bishop
of Lincoln was to be forced to pay a very large sum of
ready money, and he was sent for to Court, where the
King urged upon him the offering of the customary
tribute, and suggested that he should make a collection
in his diocese for that purpose, adding, " You will
gain more by doing so than I shall ; " meaning that
the Bishop's popularity would secure a generous
response, and that he would be able to enrich himself
with what was left over after the King's tribute had
been paid. 1

1 It must not be supposed that this proceeding would have been con-
sidered so outrageously unprincipled in that day as it would rightly be
regarded in our own. All taxation, both secular and ecclesiastical, was
systematically "farmed." The sheriff, or other official, undertook to pay
into the Exchequer a certain sum at which the proceeds of the tax were
estimated, and he kept for himself all that it could be made to yield over
and above. In no matter was this abuse more conspicuous than in the
collection of Peter's Pence, or " Romescot," as it was called even in Papal
documents. It is stated that the Archbishop of York, who was rated at
jn ios., and who accounted for that sum and not a penny more to the
Papal Treasury, raised from his diocese as much as ^118 under this title,
and retained the balance for his own use. Innocent III. complained that
the English Bishops only sent to Rome 300 marks for Romescot, and kept
back as much as 1,000 marks. (See P. Fabre, " Recherches sur le Denier
de St. Pierre en Angleterre," in Melanges G. B. de Rossi, 1892.) If these
things are true, and there is every reason to believe that they are not
greatly exaggerated, one can understand that there may have been some
excuse for the apparently unreasonable demands for money made by the
Pope in the thirteenth century. [Eo.J

2 9 2 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

A more mercenary man might perhaps have enter-
tained such an idea, but Hugh was a true shepherd,
ready ^o lay down his very life for his flock, and still
more resolved never to oppress his people or suffer
them, under any pretext, to be unjustly despoiled.
Therefore, as usual, he did not think of his own interest,
but only of his duty to his diocese. The question was
not quite such a simple one in those days as it may
appear to us now, for there were certain feudal rights,
in virtue of which Bishops who held land under the
Crown could be called upon for contributions, as well
as the laity. Hugh, however, had studied the matter
in all its bearings, and while he did not wish to refuse
anything that was just, he was determined to oppose
any fresh extortions, and to maintain intact the privi-
leges of his see.

This particular tribute of the royal mantle was in
his eyes an exorbitant demand, contrary to the dignity
and liberty of his Church, and an affront to the august
Virgin who was its patroness. Come what might, he
was determined to deliver himself and his successors,
once for all, from this intolerable burden. But he
proceeded with caution, so as not to offend those whose
opinions on feudal rights were different from his own.
To remove any pretext for fresh claims and lawsuits
in the future, he consented to an arrangement by which
he was to pay the King, in discharge of all obligations,
a sum of three thousand silver marks. In return for
this the King gave him a deed of acquittance, which
was duly signed at Le Mans, on the 23rd of June,
1194.!

1 This business of the furred mantle is mentioned both by Hoveden
(vol. iii. p. 303) and by Giraldus (vol. i. p. 267 and vol. vii. pp. 33, 41, and
108), as also by John de Schalby. There are slight discrepancies betu.-rn
the different accounts. The .I/,/-//,/ /"//,/ says it uas worth a hundred
marks, Giraldus a hundred pounds. Hoveden declares that 1,000 marks
only were paid to the King to purchase the release from future claims he

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 293

While Richard was congratulating himself upon
this result a settlement not very creditable either to
him or to his advisers St. Hugh was wondering where
he was to find the large sum of money which he had
undertaken to pay into the Royal Exchequer. He had
no savings to fall back upon, for every year he spent all
his income. All that was not actually necessary for his
own use was devoted to good works, and, far from
saving any money, he was often obliged to borrow.
Should he appeal to the generosity of his clergy, who
were no less interested than himself in the suppression
of the odious tribute? He might have done this,
without incurring the reproach of oppressing his flock.
And indeed such an appeal, which left the contribution
quite optional, would have put no constraint upon the
freedom of any individual priest. But the holy Bishop
was not willing to do even this ; he feared to be a
burden to his clergy, or to take advantage of his
personal influence to sway their decision. But there
was another idea which occurred to his mind, and
which proved much more tempting. He took a reso-
lution to leave his diocese for a time, in order to retire
to his beloved Witham, where it was next to impossible
for him to spend any money at all. He calculated that

may not, however, be taking any account of the arrears ; the Magna Vita
says 3,000 marks in all. A much greater difficulty is caused by the date.
Hoveden assigns it to the year 1195, and apparently late in the year.
Giraldus, in a letter (vol. i. p. 266) to which reference will be further made
in a note to bk. iii. ch. iv. , gives details which seem to fix the final settle-
ment of this trouble quite positively within the month of October, 1194
(i.e., after the feast of St. Michael and before that of All Saints). And yet
in the Registrum Antiquissimum, preserved among the archives of the
Dean and Chapter at Lincoln, is a copy of Richard's charter of release
dated Le Mans, June 23rd, 1194 ! It is at least a curious illustration of
the caution which should be shown in rejecting historic facts merely on the
ground of a conflict of evidence. On the whole, it seems easier to believe
that an error has been made in the date in copying the charter into the
Register, than that Giraldus can be wrong in such a circumstantial state-
ment. [ED.]

294 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

the saving effected by this reduced expenditure would
soon realize the sum he needed, while he was delighted
at the thought of the long period of solitude which he
would thus be able to enjoy. As soon, however, as his
project became known, his clergy unanimously opposed
it. They protested against this unusual absence, and
did all in their power to divert their good Bishop from
his purpose. They did more than this : they arrived at
an understanding amongst themselves, and offered to
contribute, each one according to his means, to effect
the deliverance of the diocese. Coming to their Bishop,
whom they looked upon as a father and protector, they
begged him to accept this proposition, and not to
deprive them of his presence. Neither the entreaties
of his sons nor the advice of his friends could make
Hugh feel quite at ease in doing as they bid him. But
as he was unable to withstand the pressure of public
opinion, he took pains to secure that the contribution
proposed should be perfectly voluntary. He expressly
commanded that no one was to be asked for anything,
and that all who gave should give of their own free-will.
He took as much from his own revenues as he could
spare, in order to terminate more quickly this good
work of reparation, in which he had the happiness of
seeing all his clergy take part. Their generosity was
not unworthy of the disinterestedness and public spirit
displayed by their Bishop.

Some months after the conclusion of this affair,
another dispute arose between St. Hugh and the King
of England, on the occasion of the death of Godfrey,
Abbot of Eynsham, who had held that post for forty-
four years, that is to say, ever since the reign of
Stephen, the predecessor of Henry II. As soon as
St. Hugh received the news of his death, in the year
1195, he sent one of his clergy to take charge of the
abbey and its possessions, in union with the community,

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 295

until the canonical election of a new Abbot could take
place. In doing this he was exercising a right of
patronage which undoubtedly belonged to him, for it
had been solemnly recognized, a century before, by
William the Conqueror, when Remigius, the first
occupant of the see of Lincoln, had restored and re-
populated the Abbey of Eynsham after its destruction
in the preceding war. A royal charter had expressly
declared that the patronage of this abbey belonged
exclusively henceforth to the Bishop of Lincoln and
his successors.

In spite of this authority, the adversaries of St. Hugh
took advantage of the long interruption in the exercise
of this right which had accidentally occurred, and tried
to secure it for the Crown. Richard was then in
France, engaged in a war against Philip Augustus, but
the representatives of his authority in England pressed
this unjust claim in their master's behalf, and St. Hugh
prepared to resist them.

He had at the same time to defend himself against
the advice of some of his friends, who were over-
cautious, and wished him to yield to constraint, and not
to irritate such powerful opponents. "They declared
that Henry II. had decreed by a general constitution
(gcnerali constitutione) , that all the abbeys of the kingdom
should remain in his gift ; and they urged that it was
exceedingly unlikely that the son, who was in many
ways even more unyielding than the father, would
allow this ordinance to be set aside in favour of a
privilege claimed by the Bishop of Lincoln, even
though that privilege had been granted to his see
by the King's own ancestors." 1 In fine, they repre-
sented that the slender benefit to St. Hugh himself,
even if he succeeded in gaining his point, could bear
no sort of proportion to the risk, the labour, and the

1 Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 8, p. 190.

2g6 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

expense which he was bound to incur in prosecuting
such a cause.

But St. Hugh would listen to none of their specious
arguments. "God forbid," he said, "that the decree
of any mortal man should prevail against the rights of
Christ our Lord and those of the Queen of Heaven.
Even supposing the laws of which you speak were just,
they can have no retrospective force to annul the ordi-
nances of an earlier date. No one of my predecessors
has ever given his consent to such a measure, and a
layman has not the power to abolish by any decree a
privilege of ecclesiastical liberty. Far be it from me to
allow any one of the rights of the Church, my mistress,
to be overthrown through fear of any worldly power or
through reluctance to face trouble and labour. It is
quite sufficient shame not to extend the prerogatives
and liberties of Holy Church, which have been won
and defended by those who have gone before us. But
how scandalous it would be if, through the supineness
of a useless and faint-hearted chief, those advantages
which an energetic champion would have increased and
developed, be not even maintained intact in the state in
which they came to him." 1

Once more, therefore, the Bishop of Lincoln entered
the lists to do battle for the honour of his see, and for
the welfare of the Abbey of Eynsham, which might have
grievously suffered from passing under the patronage
of the Crown. The suit, which was carried before the
King's courts, dragged on for two years and a half.
Hugh spared nothing to gain his cause ; he ardently
pleaded it himself before the King and the nobles, both
in England and on the Continent. At length his
journeys and his untiring efforts were rewarded by a
complete victory. Twenty-four sworn recognitors,
whose word was above suspicion, a jury composed

l Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 8, p. 191.

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 297

partly of clerics and partly of laymen, affirmed the
existence of the right conferred by William the
Conqueror, and handed down to St. Hugh by his
predecessors. Accordingly, by the verdict of the
King's court, both the custody of the vacant abbey
and the right of appointing the next Abbot were
adjudged to the Bishop of Lincoln. 1

The Bishop at once set out for the Abbey of
Eynsham, which was near Oxford, and had been the
scene of his election to the see of Lincoln. He
remained there eight days, living in familiar intercourse
with the monks, like a good father in the midst of his
children. He shared in all their religious exercises,
and took his repasts, with them in the common refec-
tory. During his stay the community were busied
about the election of a new Abbot. The result of
their votes was presented to the Bishop of Lincoln,
who ratified it in a solemn assembly of the Abbots from
all the neighbouring monasteries. He then departed
for Lincoln, with the newly-elected Abbot, whom he
consecrated in the Cathedral, with great pomp. After
the ceremony, he gave a grand feast to the Abbot and

1 This passage in the Magna Vita seems to me to be of considerable
interest in the history of English law. It runs as follows: " Recognito
namque per sacramentum viginti quatuor fide dignorum, clericorum pariter
et laicorum, quid juris praedecessores sui in illo habuissent coenobio, adju-
dicatur ei ejusdem patronatus in regis curia. Hinc ei restituitur abbatiae
vacantis custodia, prasficiendi quoque abbatis jurisdictio plena et absoluta."
(p. 191.) It seems clear that "the generates constitutio of Henry II.,
by which all abbacies remained in the King's gift," is simply the
i2th article of the Constitutions of Clarendon ; but the Constitution in
question says only that the custody of abbeys de dominio regis is to
remain in the King's hand; and the limitation implied in<his clause is to
be found strongly emphasized in the 46th article of Magna Charta :
" Omnes barones qui fundaverunt abbatias unde habent cartas regum
Anglite vel antiquam tenuram, habeant earum custodiam cum vacaverint,
sicut habere debent." I am unable to decide whether the procedure
followed in the cause was that of the great assize or of Darrein Presentment
(Cf. Glanvill, bk. xiii.) [ED.]

298 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

monks of Eynsham, as well as to a large number of
other ecclesiastics belonging to the diocese. He did
not pretend to conceal the satisfaction he felt at having
been able to bring back to the fold these sheep who
were so nearly stolen from him. To the Abbot he
presented a magnificent crozier, ornamented with silver
and ivory, as well as a large and beautiful cup. In fact,
he went out of his way to shower favours upon the
whole community thus confided to his care, and from
that day forth he always showed a particular affection
for this religious family, which had been ransomed at
the cost of so much toil and fatigue. 1

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER III.

It would hardly be safe to assume from the paternal
tone of St. Hugh's relations with the monks of Eyns-
ham, that there was never any friction between him
and the religious communities settled in his diocese.
The great Abbey of St. Albans, in particular, which
after a long struggle had obtained exemption from
episcopal jurisdiction in 1163, was likely for many years
to come to prove rather a thorn in the side of the
occupant of the see of Lincoln. At the very beginning
of his episcopate, St. Hugh would seem to have been
involved in a passage of arms with the St. Alban's
community, and although the story only comes to us
upon the authority of Giraldus Cambrensis, whose well-
known recklessness of statement and bitter prejudice
against the monks warn us not to put too much trust
in the details of his narrative, it seems none the less to
be founded on fact. When St. Hugh, says this writer,
after receiving episcopal consecration in London, was

1 The reader may be referred to the note which follows bk. iii. ch. v.,
later on, for what seems to me a signal proof of the esteem in which the
Eynsham community were held by St. Hugh. [Eo.J

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 299

on his way to be enthroned in the Cathedral of his
diocese, he took the road which passed through
St. Albans, and stopped there with the intention of
saying Mass in the abbey church. The monks, how-
ever, refused to allow him to do so, for having obtained
from the Holy See the privilege of exemption from
episcopal authority, and being, like all monks, says
Giraldus, excessively nervous and touchy about their
privileges, they were afraid that if the Bishop of Lincoln
were admitted into their church, the precedent might
afterwards be used to their disadvantage. When
St. Hugh, a few days later, reached Lincoln and had
been duly enthroned, he consulted his canons as to how
he should vindicate the honour of his see from the
slight which had been put upon it. By their advice he
published a decree, that throughout the whole of his
vast diocese, 1 in which the monks had many scattered
possessions, the brethren of St. Albans should nowhere
be permitted to say or to hear Mass, excepting in their
own churches. Furthermore, he ordained that the
monks should be systematically boycotted, to use a
modern phrase, and that none of the faithful subject to
his authority, under pain of excommunication, should
receive them into their houses or should buy, sell, or
barter with them. Thereupon the community of

1 "Per episcopatum suum totum, qui magnus est et amplus valde,
septem scilicet comitatus et dimidium tenens," says Giraldus. The most
striking illustration, to my thinking, of the importance of the diocese of
Lincoln is to be found in the sum at which it is rated in the assessment of
Romescot, or Peter's Pence an assessment which, made originally at the
beginning of the twelfth century, was maintained almost unaltered down to
the Reformation. According to this, Lincoln for its share of the 300 marks
levied on the whole of England, paid no less than ^"42, a sum nearly
double that contributed by any other diocese. The next highest is the
diocese of Norwich, with ^21 ios., and the third Winchester, with
17 6s. 8d. Canterbury, York, and London are comparatively speaking
nowhere. (See P. Fabre, Etude sur le Liber Censuum, p. 143.) The same
assessment is preserved in the Red Book of the Exchequer. (See Hall's
Edition, vol. ii. p. 750.) [ED.]

300 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

St. Albans, realizing the inconvenience of the position
in which they would be placed, and the great losses
it would entail upon them, are said to have humbly
craved forgiveness at the Bishop's feet, and to have
been mercifully received to pardon. Although I do
not put any trust in the details of this story, no trace
of which is to be found in the St. Alban's chronicles,
I am inclined nevertheless to think that it is not a pure
invention. In the collection of charters and Papal
briefs accorded to St. Albans, which was known as the
Liber Additamcntonim, 1 we find, about eighteen months
after the supposed date of this episode, a batch of no
less than fifteen Papal documents issued by Clement III.
between March 15 and June i, 1188. Almost every one
of these rescripts is of the nature of a privilege, and it
looks as if the monks had been straining every nerve to
make favour with the new Pope and to secure them-
selves in good time against any recurrence of episcopal
interference. The first of the briefs is headed by the
St. Alban's monk who copied the documents into the
register : " A privilege to the effect that no excom-
munication binds the monks of St. Albans," and it
decrees in fact that any excommunication launched
against them by Archbishop or Bishop is ipso facto null
and void. The next document is headed by the rubri-
cator : " A confirmation of the exaction of the Church of
Lincoln." Seeing that it consists of nothing more than
a confirmation of the agreement arrived at in 1163,
after the dispute between the Abbey and the Bishop
and Chapter, the title is significant. It suggests that
the monks had tried to revoke the cession of land made
to the Bishop of Lincoln in exchange for the renun-
ciation of his claims over the abbey, but that the Pope
had held them to their bargain. The privileges con-

1 It has been printed in the sixth volume of the Rolls Series edition of
Matthew Paris.

FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING. 301

ceded by the Pope in these briefs are otherwise very
ample, but there seems to be no evidence that St. Hugh
made any attempt to contest them. On the other hand,
the tone in which the St. Alban's chroniclers of a later
age refer to the Saint is uniformly sympathetic and
laudatory.

The great question of the exemption of the abbeys
from episcopal control, although it was beginning to
become a burning one just at this period, seems hardly
to belong to the present Life. 1 St. Albans was at this
date the only exempt abbey in the diocese of Lincoln,
and under a prelate like St. Hugh, the monks who
really wished to lead religious lives had little reason to
seek for exemption. Even temporally speaking, they
gained far more from his sympathy and support against
secular encroachment than they could possibly lose by
his interference in their domestic concerns. Where
St. Hugh was satisfied that the Religious, of no matter
what Order, were living according to their Rule, he
seems to have shown himself the most loyal and
generous of friends. The following phrase, for instance,
which occurs in a charter of St. Hugh to Ramsey
Abbey, issued somewhere between 1189 and 1195, is
obviously no mere conventional form, but must have
been introduced because it represented sincerely the
mind of the writer. He assigns to the monks of
Ramsey the proceeds of certain benefices to repair the
fabric of their church and monastery, to provide lights
for the altar, and some little conveniences for the sick,
&c., adding : " This grant has been made by us because
the good life (honesta conversatio), the humble and

1 There is much interesting information to be found on this subject in
the Etude sur le Liber Censuum, by M. Paul Fabre, of the Ecole Franfaise
of Rome (Paris, 1892), pp. 88 115, and for earlier periods in an Inaugural
Dissertation by Dr. K. F. Weiss, Die Kirchlichen Extmtionen der Kloster
(Basel, 1893).

302 FIRST CONFLICTS BETWEEN BISHOP AND KING.

charitable devotion of the said Abbot and his brethren
day by day impress us more and more, diffusing a
perfume, as it were, of frankincense and myrrh, so that
in a marked and singular degree our spirit finds repose
amongst them." This grant to Ramsey of the revenues
of certain benefices in the diocese was by no means a
unique or isolated instance of such favour being shown
by St. Hugh to a religious house. On this vexed ques-
tion of the granting of churches and church tithes to
the monasteries, a word must be said in another page,
but it is quite certain that St. Hugh, under proper safe-
guards, both sanctioned and approved the practice.
This wise and large-minded Bishop by no means
shared the views of those who can see nothing in such a
transaction but a weak concession to the greed and
rapacity of the monks. [Eo.]

CHAPTER IV.

THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP, AND THE JUSTICE
OF GOD.

IF the Bishop of Lincoln knew well how to look after
his own rights, he devoted himself with a zeal no less
noteworthy to the just judgment of the cases carried
before his own tribunal. According to the ancient
discipline of the Church, recognized expressly by the
laws of William the Conqueror, each diocese in England
had its own " Court Christian," for the trial of cases
provided for in the Canon Law ; and to which not
only ecclesiastics, but also the laity, used frequently to
have recourse. 1 This made a heavy burden for the
Bishop, more especially if his diocese happened to be
a large one, and if the public confidence which he
inspired brought him fresh cases to decide from all
quarters.

Hugh used to complain of this at times to his
friends, and would express a wish to lay aside a charge
so cumbersome when united to that of the episcopate.
" The only difference," he would say, " between magis-
trates and bishops at the present day is that the latter

1 Testamentary and matrimonial causes make up a very large part of
litigation, and these belonged of right to the Courts Christian. But
besides these there were sundry expedients by which other causes, not so
strictly ecclesiastical, might be brought before the same tribunals. (See the
Cautelce of William of Drogheda, quoted in one of Professor Maitland's
masterly articles on ' ' Canon Law in England, " English Historical Review,
October, 1897, p. 632 and p. 653, n. 6.) [Eo.]

304 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

are kept sitting in judgment perpetually, and the former
only on certain specified days; the civil judges have
some leisure to attend to their domestic affairs; whereas
the ecclesiastical judges have scarcely a moment even
to save their souls."

Notwithstanding the very natural repugnance which
the Saint felt to the excessive din and distraction of
these sessions which he had to preside over, he was
very careful to maintain their dignity in every way.
All might count on him for that sovereign love of the
truth, which, together with prudence and impartiality,
is the most distinctive qualification of a good judge.

He was studiously careful never to write or say
anything that was not punctiliously accurate ; so much
so that in subpoenas issued under his seal he would not
allow the usual formula : " We remember having summoned
you already," to be inserted, fearing, lest through some
failure of his memory, the words might not be literally
true. He observed the like caution even in the most
familiar conversation, and in telling anything he had
done or heard of, would always use some restrictive
clause, such as : "If my memory does not deceive me,"
to save his words from all seeming exaggeration or
ambiguity.

Hence we can well imagine with what attention
he applied himself in his judicial office to the investi-
gation and exact statement of the truth. He was
quick to detect all the artifices of chicanery ; and his
penetration in this matter elicted the admiration of
experienced lawyers and magistrates. His gift of
finding a happy solution for the most inextricable
difficulties, seemed simply miraculous ; as well as the
possession of an insight clearer than that of the ablest
practitioners, in one who was without any acquaintance,
such as theirs, with the inns and outs of a very com-
plicated system of jurisprudence.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 305

Plaintiffs of all sorts and conditions soon found out
this wonderful gift of his, and when once they were
convinced of the justice of their cause, they would
betake themselves to the Bishop of Lincoln, with the
certainty that his perspicacity would frustrate the
snares of their adversaries, and that his unshaken deter-
mination would triumphantly vindicate their rights, 1
All this toil the man of God shared with his arch-
deacons and other dignitaries chosen from amongst
those ecclesiastics more capable of aiding him in his
generous purpose of rendering speedy and ample justice
to all ; nor did he leave them to their own devices, but
formed them according to the pattern of his choice.
Especially, he required that they should desist from
one custom which seemed to him open to the gravest
objections ; the custom of inflicting fines, instead of
canonical penances, lor certain misdemeanours. Hugh
was convinced of the truth of the sacred text which
says : " Presents blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert
the tongue of the just." 2 He feared lest avarice should
so corrupt his delegates as to lead them to the oppression
of the innocent, and the protection of the guilty ; and
he was always reminding them of that other maxim

1 This will have been specially true of appeals to Rome, in which the
petitioner was free to "impetrate" certain definite ecclesiastics who should
be named as Papal delegates to try his case. " But thirdly," says Professor
Maitland (ubi supra, p. 634), " and this is of great importance, the plaintiff
who went to the Pope for a writ, seems to have enjoyed a large liberty of
choosing his own judges. In the letter of ' impetration ' that he sent to
Rome, he named the persons whose appointment he desired. The Pope
no doubt was free to name other delegates in their stead ; still we may
believe that the plaintiff generally got his way, unless he asked for some-
thing outrageous." Beside the great causes which will be spoken of in the
next chapter, we find St. Hugh appointed Papal delegate in several minor
suits, e.g. , Jaffe, 17632, 17633, Potthast, 388, &c., but these few probably
bear no sort of proportion to the number of which we have no record,
[Ea]

3 Exodus xxiii. 8.
U

306 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

of the Sacred Scriptures: "Fire shall devour their
tabernacles, who love to take bribes." 1

It was objected to him that defaulters were more
alive to this sort of punishment, and cared less about
excommunication or even corporal penalties. To which
he would reply that this was due to the negligence of
the judges who were too lenient in their sentences, or
too careless to see them carried out faithfully, except
it were a case of some fine to be exacted. And if
further the example of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who
followed this custom, were alleged, Hugh never denied
the fact, but conceived that he was at liberty in this
point to differ from the sainted Archbishop, and would
say openly, " Believe me, it was not for that that he
was canonized ; but on the score of other titles and
virtues which won him the glorious crown of sanctity
and martyrdom;" and by this slightly brisk retort he
would silence his opponents without in any way
detracting from the respect due to St. Thomas a
Becket. The due veneration of God's servants does
not require of necessity that we should approve all
their actions and opinions, or in any way blind our-
selves to the light of our own conscience.

There was one virtue in particular in the holy
martyr of Canterbury which the Bishop of Lincoln
admired frankly and followed faithfully his indomitable
determination against those who despised the authority
of the Church. St. Hugh, like Thomas a Becket, made
himself a terror to the turbulent by the way in which
he availed himself of the formidable weapon of excom-
munication. Moreover, the justice of God would often
sanction his censures in an appalling manner, so that
they became death-warrants ; and of these examples of
vengeance, some deserve special mention.

1 Job xv. 34.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 307

There lived, near the city of Lincoln, a certain
Thomas of Saleby, a knight of ample fortune, already
advanced in years and yet childless. His rightful legal
heir was William of Hardredeshill, also a knight, a
shrewd and able man, but unfortunately held in
abhorrence by his sister-in-law, who saw with dread
the time approaching when she would be dependent
upon him. To ward off this danger she did not scruple
to have recourse to a singular piece of deceit ; and
passed herself off as the mother of a little girl of humble
birth whom she brought from some country part. 1 Her
husband, who usually allowed himself to be ruled by
her, lent himself as a passive accomplice in this iniquity,
which Sir William denounced to the Bishop of Lincoln,
about Easter-time in 1194. Hugh, in great indignation,
summoned Thomas of Saleby on Holy Saturday, and
strove to extort from him the required evidence ; but he
only replied by evasions, promising however to make
a clean breast of it on the morrow, after having con-
sulted his wife. "And if you do not keep your promise,"
said the man of God, " know for certain that to-morrow
we shall give sentence of excommunication against all
the authors and abettors of this crime."

The would-be mother forbade her husband to keep
his word ; but the Bishop did not fail to keep his. In
the middle of the Easter ceremonies he announced to
the assembled multitude all that had come to his
knowledge, and made clear to them the enormity of
this fraud and its injurious consequences alike to him
who was its victim and to his posterity; adding that

1 As Mr. Dimock truly says (Magna Vita, p. 170, note), "the main
facts of this curious narrative are fully confirmed by various acts in the
public records of the time." Thus in the Curia Regis Rolls, Edit. Hardy,
we find under date 28 November, 1194, the following entry : " Willielmus
de Herdredeshill petit recordum et judicium versus Thomam Fitz William et
Agnetem uxorem ejus de placito falsi puerperii, et Epis. Lincolniensis dicit
quod loquela ilia special ad curiam Chrislianilalis el pelil earn." [ED.]

308 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

death was wont to strike such criminals suddenly ; and,
in fine, pronouncing publicly the threatened anathema.

On the following night, he who had thus taken upon
himself to answer for his wife's fault, was found dead in
his bed.

She, however, persisted in her desire to disinherit
her brother-in-law ; and she eventually succeeded. By
a royal decision her pretended daughter was affianced
to a young brother of the Grand Forester, at that time
Hugh de Neville. This gentleman, whose name was
Adam, was so eager to enter into pacific enjoyment
of the rich patrimony which was the child's portion,
that he could scarcely wait till she was fourteen, for
the solemnization of the marriage. In vain did the
Bishop most strictly forbid the priests to bless, or the
faithful to sanction by their presence, an union so
insultingly defiant of the law. In his absence a priest
was found in some out-of-the-way village simple enough,
or wicked enough, to celebrate the marriage, of which
the friends or relations of Adam de Neville were
witnesses. As soon as the news of this scandal
reached the Bishop's ears, he suspended the said cleric
from his functions, and cited the other guilty parties
to his court. But as they refused to appear before
him, they were forthwith excommunicated ; a sentence,
moreover, which Hugh ordered to be published each
Sunday in all the churches of the diocese.

At last, under pressure of fear, the widow of Thomas
of Saleby was persuaded to make a full confession in the
presence of the Bishop and of certain of his officials.
She was accompanied by a servant-woman who had
been the chief instrument in her deceit. But this
somewhat tardy repentance did not save her from
ending her days in the bitterest sorrow, after having
seen the disastrous results of her sin continued to the
end.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 309

In spite of the publication of her confession by
St. Hugh, who hastened to give information of the fact
to the King's judges and to the parties concerned, the
matter was not yet at an end. Adam de Neville
persisted in laying claim to the heritage of Sir Thomas,
and exerted all his influence with the members of the
court to obtain a sentence in conformity with his
wishes. Advantage was taken of the absence of the
Bishop of Lincoln to fix a day for final judgment.
But on the eve of that very day Adam de Neville,
who had stopped at an inn near London, slept to
awaken no more, and instead of appearing before a
tribunal won over to his cause, he found himself
suddenly handed over to appear before the tribunal of
God.

The pretended heiress, together with her fortune,
was nevertheless once more given in marriage to one
of the King's chamberlains, who soon died ; : and then,
a third time, to a gentleman whose violent excesses
had already drawn down ecclesiastical censures upon
his head, 2 and who, at the time when St. Hugh's
biographer was writing, bade fair to end his days in the
same miserable state.

This same biographer records other facts of a like
nature not less striking. We shall not delay to describe
the horrible death of a forester, excommunicated by the
Bishop of Lincoln, and brutally murdered a few days
later by certain marauders against whom he was pre-
paring to proceed with his usual ungoverned violence.
But we must lay stress on one other example of the
Divine justice which followed upon a dispute between

1 We learn from the extant records that his name was Norman de
Caritate, or Norman de Camera. In the year 1200, " he gave King John
200 marks for his infant wife and her inheritance." (See Dimock, p. 177,
note.) [ED.]

2 This, we learn from the records, was Brien de Insula, who paid 300
marks for her. (Dimock, ibidem, Rot, Glaus. 6th John, p. 17, b. [ED.]

3 io THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

the new Archbishop of Canterbury and our holy Bishop.
Hubert, who had succeeded Baldwin on the primatial
throne of England, was also Chief Justice of the
kingdom and Papal Legate. Gifted as he was, with
great skill in the management of affairs, and endowed
with qualities which had won for him the friendship of
his venerable predecessor, this prelate had on more
than one occasion manfully upheld the interests of the
Church ; but too often he had preferred to them those
of the State or of the King, whose insatiable avarice
we know so well. He was more careful to replenish the
royal coffers, than to govern his diocese well or to
bridle the pretensions of the secular power. At first
perhaps he wished to secure, if not the connivance, at
least the obsequious silence of the Bishop of Lincoln
by gaining his good-will. The boy whom, as we have
seen, he brought over to him from France, may possibly
have been proof of some such conciliatory disposition.
But the Archbishop was not slow to take a very different
attitude as soon as occasion revealed the unbending
integrity of our Saint.

Such an occasion was offered in the unfortunate
case of Richard de Waure, deacon of the diocese of
Lincoln, younger son of a noble family, who conceived
a desire to become a Religious. He had applied for
admission to a monastery and had been accepted. But
on learning that his elder brother had died childless he
gave up his pious resolve, and the rich heritage which
he was to receive led him to forget the call of God.
This was the beginning of his fall. For some time,
however, he seems to have enjoyed his wealth, and we
find him winning the favour of King Richard and of
the Chief Justice. This he wished to turn to account
for the ruin of a certain Reginald d'Argentan, a knight
who, like himself, belonged to the diocese of Lincoln ;
and against whom he brought a charge of high treason.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 311

As many were perfectly convinced that the charge was
false, and as it was a question of capital punishment,
the Bishop of Lincoln forbade the deacon, under pain
of excommunication, to continue the prosecution. But
he, relying on the favourable interference of the King
and the Primate, made bold to resist the order ; where-
upon Hugh promptly declared him suspended for con-
tempt of ecclesiastical discipline.

Richard de Waure then betook himself to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, who released him from the
censures laid upon him. Forthwith he started off
triumphantly to notify the fact of his absolution to
his Bishop, whom he discovered in the thick of an
assembled multitude of prelates and nobles. He told
him with some insolence that by this act of the Legate
he considered himself exempt from his jurisdiction, and
free to testify his loyalty to the King in procuring the
punishment of traitors ; and he congratulated himself
that he had now no reason to be disturbed by a censure
which he could regard as unauthorized. But the more
he strove to overawe the Bishop, the more did he
render him inflexible. " It is not the least use," said
he to the deacon, " to boast about your absolution. If
you still refuse to obey me, I will excommunicate you
on the spot." The rebel remained obstinate and began
to threaten furiously as if he were speaking in the
King's name ; and so the Bishop straightway pro-
nounced sentence of excommunication.

Richard de Waure returned to the Legate and told
him what had happened ; saying that it was an insult
to the Archbishop and a grievous wrong to the King.
He asked and received a letter in which the Primate
ordered the Bishop of Lincoln to hold the deacon
absolved. Hugh could not deny the validity of the
Legate's absolution, but he did not consider himself
thereby deprived of his jurisdiction over a rebellious

3 i2 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

subject of his own. Having read the letter, he said to
the deacon, who had brought it: "Even though the
Lord Archbishop should absolve you a hundred times,
I will excommunicate you straight off a hundred times
and more, so long as I see you persisting in your foolish
rebellion. You know well enough the respect due to
our sentence ; and now, understand, that we reiterate
and confirm it in all its force." The Bishop intended
no doubt to appeal directly to the Sovereign Pontiff in
case the Legate Hubert should offer a more formal
opposition to the exercise of his canonical power. But
God took the task of his justification into his own
hands.

The deacon had retired considerably ruffled at the
issue of this interview ; and under the influence of fear
began to consider whether it were not better to submit
to the orders of his Bishop. He hadno time, however,
to make known the outcome of these cogitations, for a
few days later, one of his servants, in a fit of rage, split
open his head with an axe ; and thus the rebel died by
the hand of another rebel, without having time to show
any sign of repentance.

On another occasion the holy Bishop saw his
authority set at open defiance by a woman whom he
sought to bring back to a life of conjugal fidelity. The
daughter of an Oxford tradesman had contracted lawful
marriage with a young man of the same city, and
had afterwards deserted him to live in adultery with
another.

The injured husband brought his grievance before
the Bishop and gave proof of his wife's infidelity.
Encouraged by her unworthy mother, she would in
nowise listen to the man of God, who urged her to
return to her duty, but, in the presence of a dense
crowd, and hard by the altar before which the Bishop
was standing encirled by his clergy, she openly defied

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 313

him in the church after a most scandalous fashion. She
protested she would die rather than go back as she was
told. Hugh, after using all means of persuasion, took
the husband's hand, and said to the young woman : " If
you wish to be my daughter, listen to what I tell you :
give your husband the kiss of peace, and take him with
the blessing of God. Else I will spare neither you nor
your advisers."

These words, full both of gentleness and power,
failed to move the unhappy adultress. When her
husband, at the bidding of the man of God, came
forward to embrace her, she spat in his face. A thrill
of indignation ran through the by-standers.

" You have refused the blessing," cries the Bishop,
in a terrible voice, " and you have chosen the curse ;
and now behold it falls upon you ; " and therewith he
pronounces the excommunication.

The refractory wife withdrew, persisting in her
rebellion. She lived a few days longer, during which
her heart grew harder and harder, but very soon a
sudden and terrible death cut short her sinful enjoy-
ments.

Thus was the sanctity of marriage vindicated no
less than the authority of its illustrious defender.

By these examples, noised abroad not only in the
diocese of Lincoln, but throughout England, men learnt
to fear the excommunications of the holy Bishop and
to avoid them carefully, or else to get absolved from
them as soon as possible.

However grieved by the impenitence of certain
guilty souls, Hugh could not but marvel at that Provi-
dence which brought good out of evil, and pressed
justice into the service of mercy. He cordially embraced
such as returned to the path of duty ; and continued
with unwearied courage to make the decisions of his
own tribunal respected, as well as the decrees of the

3M THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

Holy See, of which he was often the honoured repre-
sentative in the investigation of the most delicate and
complicated cases.

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER IV.

The picture of St. Hugh's administration of justice
contained in this chapter may very well he supple-
mented by an account which Giraldus Cambrensis has
left us, of an affair in which he himself appeared before
the Bishop's court in the character of a suitor. It was
a common thing with Giraldus to labour under a sense
of grievance, and the feeling must have been strong
upon him, when he addressed to St. Hugh the long
letter of remonstrance which I am about to quote from.
Everything that we know of the writer suggests that
his account of the dispute is likely to be a very one-
sided one, in which his own case is skilfully presented
and all the strong points on the other side are slurred
over. But even while making complaints against
St. Hugh, Giraldus really throws into relief the unique
position which he occupied among the English Bishops
of that day.

It would seem that in the early part of the year 1193,
the rectory of Chesterton (in Oxfordshire), fell vacant.
The right to present was claimed by Gerard of Camville,
previously Sheriff of Lincolnshire, the same who only
a short time before had held the Castle of Lincoln
against the Chancellor, William of Longchamp. 1 He
named Giraldus Cambrensis to the benefice, who at
once applied to St. Hugh for institution. There seems,
however, to have been considerable doubt as to the
ownership or custody of the lands in virtue of which the
presentation was made. One of the Lincoln canons,
William St. Mere I'feglise, who afterwards became

1 See above, p. 283 and note i. The castle was really defended by
his wife, Nicholaa, Gerard himself being away.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD, 315

Bishop of London, 1 was at that very time preparing to
contest the title of Camville to the "custodia" in question,
and St. Hugh, sympathizing, it would seem, with his
own canon rather than with the sheriff, 2 delayed to
institute Giraldus on the ground that there was no
satisfactory evidence of the sheriff's right to present.
Giraldus was put to great trouble in getting letters
from the Archbishop of Canterbury, from Stephen Ridel,
and others, to urge his cause, but at last, about February
2nd, 1194, St. Hugh consented to institute him. Until
September, 1194, Giraldus seems to have been left in
quiet possession, but in the meantime William de
St. Mere 1'Eglise had played his cards so well with
the King that he had obtained a verdict in his favour,
and the custody of the estate had now passed into
his hands. Thereupon an attempt was made to oust
Giraldus from the rectory of Chesterton, and a mandate
was addressed to St. Hugh by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, bidding him deprive the recently instituted
rector, and retain the church in his own keeping, until
the Barons of the Exchequer had decided whether the
presentation belonged to the Crown or to somebody
else. St. Hugh is reproached by Giraldus for weakly
giving way to the Archbishop, through his anxiety not
to offend the King's friends at this juncture, when the

1 St. Hugh was one of the consecrating prelates when William St. Mere
1'Eglise received episcopal orders in 1199. The name in Latin nearly
always appears as Willielmus de Sanctae Marias Ecclesia (i.e., William of
St. Mary Church). Why the form William St. Mire 1'Eglise has come to
prevail among modern writers I am quite unable to explain. There seems
no doubt that he was a great pluralist, as Giraldus insinuates, but Giraldus
himself was holding more than one piece of preferment at this time.

2 I call him the sheriff for convenience sake, though he was not sheriff
at the moment. As Gerard de Camville was a great upholder of the party
of Prince John, the King's brother, against the Chancellor (see above,
pp. 283 and 288), the episode is interesting as showing that St. Hugh had
by no means committed himself unreservedly to the support of the same
side.

3 i6 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

affair of the furred mantle was just on the point of
being settled. Whether Hugh really took part against
Giraldus or not, he seems somehow or other to have
negotiated a compromise by which the church of
Chesterton was placed under the care of a " vicar," 1 a
certain William, apparently a protege of St. Mere
I'^glise, but a man whom Giraldus declares he had
never set eyes upon in his life. To this William, as
vicar, twenty marks a year were to be given, a very
handsome stipend indeed for those days, while Giraldus
himself, though he was still " parson," would receive
only what was left, amounting, as he complained, to
no more than a miserable pittance of four marks and
a half per annum. Even this sum apparently was not
regularly paid, and the parson accordingly cited his
vicar to appear in the Bishop's court, but though a
day and place had been named by St. Hugh for hearing
the cause, the proctor of Giraldus, when he duly pre-
sented himself at Dorchester on the appointed day,
failed to find either court or defendant. If the story
which Giraldus tells represents the whole truth, he

1 It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to explain that a vicar meant
originally, as its derivation indicates, a substitute. The vicar was the
substitute of the rector or " parson," and in the case of appropriated
churches where the rectory had been given to a layman or to a corporation
(collegium], e.g., to a community of monks or nuns, the cure of souls in
the parish was necessarily committed to a vicar. In the beginning such
vicars were probably removable at the will of the parson, and their stipends
were arbitrary and variable. But ecclesiastical authority, as mentioned in
the text, seems very soon to have insisted, that the vicars should have a
certain fixity of tenure and that a definite allowance, sufficient to meet the
approval of the Bishop, should be made to them out of the tithes or other
revenues ; these being usually paid to the parson of the church (person^
ecclesice), though the parson might be an absentee, a layman, or a corpora-
tion. As may be seen in the Vicarage Book of Hugh de Wells (Liber
Antiquus], the vicar's stipend, though determined in each case by the
authority of the Bishop, varied greatly in amount and in manner of
payment, but it was fixed and permanent, and the vicarage itself now
became a benefice in the gift of the individual or the corporation who
represented the original " parson."

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 317

had no doubt some excuse for considering himself
hardly dealt with. He writes in the tone of a martyr,
offers to resign the church of Chesterton altogether,
and affects to speak more in sorrow than in anger of
his grievous disappointment in finding that even Hugh
was not courageous enough to take up the cudgels for
his friends against the malevolence of the court officials.
"Who," asks Giraldus, "shall be found to keep in
check the monstrous encroachments of the men of the
court ? Who will denounce the pretensions of the royal
power and the so-called * ancestral customs ' (consuetudines,
quas avitas vacant), both old and new, for which the
Blessed Thomas in his glorious contest after staking
many other things finally staked his head ? Who will
stand forth as the champion of Christ's Church to
defend the rights of the clergy, if the Bishop of Lincoln,
the only man in this land upon whom our hopes were
built, should grow faint-hearted, which God forbid,
and give up the struggle?" The writer enters at
considerable length into the details of the dispute, he
shows that his deprivation, even though ordered by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, was wholly unjustifiable, he
describes the speech which he had made before the
diocesan synod in October, 1194, and incidentally lets
us see by making reference to three consecutive half
yearly synods how regularly these assemblies were held
during St. Hugh's administration, the Bishop himself pre-
siding. Further, he professes that he had all along felt
such a deep conviction of the justice of his cause and of
St. Hugh's integrity, that he had no thought even then
of appealing to the Holy See as he might easily have
done. " There were several in the synod," he tells
St. Hugh, " who were greatly astonished, declaring that
they had never known or heard of your acting so before,
and they urged, though without persuading me, that
I should enter an appeal to the Pope and send off a

3 i8 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

messenger to the Curia. 1 But though the wrong done to
me was plain and manifest, I neither appealed nor spoke
any harsh word, but I endured all in patience. * There
was no iniquity found upon my tongue, and foolishness
did not sound in my mouth." 2 So much so, that there
were many who put this conduct of mine down to
mere dulness, or at least to want of spirit. Even when
they pricked me on or taunted me, all that I said was :
4 If I am the first who has met with such a wrong at
the hands of my lord Bishop, I can only pray that I
may also be the last.' And in the meantime I kept
saying within myself with holy Job : 3 * The Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away ; as it hath pleased the
Lord, so is it done.' * Have I not dissembled ? have
I not kept silence ? have I not been quiet ? and
indignation is come upon me.' 4 'When he shall have
fulfilled his will in me many other like things are also
at hand with him.' 5 'Although he should kill me a
thousand times over, I will still trust in him.' " 6

If this is really an accurate account of Giraldus'
behaviour on the occasion, those who are most familiar
with his writings will probably be the first to allow
that it affords very remarkable testimony to the respect
in which he held the Bishop of Lincoln. Anything
more un-Joblike than the language in which he usually
indulged under similar provocation it would be hard
to imagine. I am afraid, however, that the true
explanation of the letter is to be found in the Welsh
archdeacon's shrewd guess, that if St. Hugh had a
weak point it was likely to be sensitiveness to any

1 " Ut ad priDsentiam domini papse appellarem et ad curium initterem."
I cannot be sure whether curia here means the King's Court or the Court
of Rome. Such appeals would apparently have needed the royal sanction
according to the King's idea before they could be prosecuted at Rome. The
letter of Giraldus is to be found in the first volume of his works (Rolls
Series), pp. 259 268.

3 Job vi. 30. 3Jobi.2i. 4 Jobiii.26. " Job xxiii. 14. Job xiii. 15.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 319

insinuation of subserviency in his dealings with the
Court and Court favourites. It seems clear enough
that St. Hugh had sided with William St. Mere FEglise
against Giraldus, and William was a great man and
in high favour with the King. So far appearances
were against the Saint, but it does not of course follow
that the right was with Giraldus, still less that the
Bishop of Lincoln's obedience to his metropolitan
was dictated by any unworthy motive. Whether the
writer's accumulation of texts denouncing all accepta-
tion of persons and his references to St. Thomas of
Canterbury produced any effect upon St. Hugh, we
have no information to enable us to determine.

The same letter contains many interesting details
which bear upon English law and practice at this
period concerning Church presentations, but they are
too technical to be discussed here. 1 I will only remark
that the priest William, who was appointed by St. Hugh
to fulfil parochial duties in the church of Chesterton,
with a salary of twenty marks a year, seems clearly to
have been a perpetual vicar whom Giraldus, as rector
or parson, could not dismiss at will. This is a com-

1 One such point may be quoted as a specimen. Giraldus declares that
he told St. Hugh, the Archbishop of Canterbury confirming his statement :
1 ' Regni consuetudinem talem esse, quod custodes donee ad annos legitimos
pueri pervenennt, ecclesias interim vacantes personis conferunt non
collegiis." (p. 262.) This apparently means that if the advocatus or custos
ecdesicB, the person, that is, who had the right to present, was a minor,
then the church could only be given to an individual (as parson), and not to
a corporate body. I gather from this that Gerard of Camville did not claim
to present in his own rig^t, but in virtue of some ward of his, who was a
minor, and that St. Hugh had at hrst wanted the benefice to be made over
to a religious community. However, Giraldus does not tell us enough to
make the matter clear. It is curious that when on the death of Giraldus
the rectory of Chesterton again fell vacant in 1222, the lord of Chesterton
was a minor, and the Archdeacon of London presented to it It would
seem that the arrangement made by St. Hugh for the stipend of the vicar
still subsisted, the rector being paid a pension of 5^ marks in place of the
\>/i, which Giraldus declared he received. (Dunkin's Oxfordshire ', vol. i. p. 250. )

3 2o THE JUSTICE OF THE 131 SHOT,

paratively early instance of this form of benefice, 1 which
arose out of the Papal legislation of the beginning of
the twelfth century, reinforced by various provincial
synods, and which became very common after the
Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. To Hugh Wells,
Bishop of Lincoln from 1209 to 1235, the credit has
been assigned of " rescuing from monkish greed and
selfishness a portion of the tithes of the churches which
by one method or another the Religious had appro-
priated. " s That some sort of general inquisition into
the vicarages, and an authoritative settlement of a

1 The introduction of perpetual vicarages is dated by many writers a
great deal too late. Phillimore, for instance, says : "Vicarages are usually
supposed to have begun in the eighth year of Henry III., but they are to
be met with as early as the time of King John. It would seem that there
is an instance of the appointment of a perpetual vicar in the reign of
Henry II." (Ecclesiastical Law of the Church of England, vol. i. p. 226.
C.'f. Makower, Constitutional History of the Church of England, Eng. Ed.
p. 331 ; Twiss, Preface to Bracton, De Legibus Anglice, iv. pp. ix. seq.)
But already in 1173 an English Provincial Synod enacts that "perpetual
vicars, who are bound by oath to the parsons of their churches, are not to
set themselves up against the parson" (Mansi, Concilia, vol. xxii. p. 144;
Wilkins, vol. i. p. 474) ; and it is surely a reasonable inference that before
legislation of this kind can have been found necessary, perpetual vicars
must have become numerous. The fact is, that while nothing requires us
to believe that perpetual vicarages were a novel institution in the reign of
Henry II., there are many indications of the contrary. The decree of
the Councils of Clermont (1130) and Second Lateran (1139) " Praecipimus
etiam ne conductitiis presbyteris ecclesiae committantur, et unaquaeque
ecclesia proprium habeat sacerdotem " is plainly intended to secure the
appointment of perpetual vicars. Compare the wording of the fifth canon
of Tours (1163) and the fourth canon of Avranches (1172). Again, in the
collection of decrees published by Mansi as an Appendix to the Third Lateran
Council (vol. xxii. pp. 248 453), are a number of decisions about vicarages
addressed by Pope Urban III. (11851187) to English Bishops, from one
of which we find that priests were already beginning to hold vicarages in
plurality, and in another of which the Pope practically pronounces all
vicars to be irremovable, except for some canonical offence proved in the
Bishop's Court, while he furthermore guarantees the permanence of their
stipends. (Ibid. pp. 398, 399.) The instances of permanent vicars which
1 have noted in connection with St. Hugh's life were certainly not the only
ones known in England at that period.

- Canon G. G. Perry, in the Preface to Liber Antiquus Hugonis Wells.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 321

competent allowance to be made to the vicar, took
place under Hugh Wells, is no doubt true ; but if it be
insinuated that no provision was made before that time
for the spiritual needs of appropriated churches, or that
the vicars were generally left without adequate means
of subsistence, the suggestion seems wholly unwar-
ranted. Besides the definite instances of the vicarage
of Chesterton just mentioned, of another of which we
know at Swinford, 1 and of two in the Ramsey Chartulary, 2
there is every reason to believe that St. Hugh never
granted, or sanctioned the grant, of Church property to
a religious community without requiring adequate pro-
vision to be made for a suitable vicar. Knowing as
we do how scrupulous St. Hugh was in the matter of
legal phraseology, we may be quite sure that when in
a charter of his of this kind in the Harleian collection
to which his seal is still attached, we read such words
as these : " Reserving always competent vicarages to
those who in their own proper persons shall minister
in the same churches through the nomination of the
said (regular) Canons," the clause was no mere matter
of form. The charter in question is one which makes
over to the Premonstratensian Canons of Newhouse
the revenues of no less than six Lincolnshire parishes
(cum omnibus ad ipsas pertinentibus in proprios eorundem
Canonicovum ttsus), always of course under the proviso
just mentioned of a competent allowance to the vicars
who did the duty. 3

1 Ibid. Preface, p. ix.

2 At Shillingdon and Hemingford. The charters in these two cases
again show the most careful and generous provision for the needs of the
vicars. In the second case the vicar, Master Aristotle, is mentioned by
name, and there is question of his successors in this perpetual vicarage.
(Ramsey Chartulary, vol. ii. p. 176.)

3 Harleian Charter, 43 H. 23. It would be easy to find several other
instances. See, for instance, Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 94 a., where a
grant of two churches is cited, made by St. Hugh to the Canons of Nockton.

V

322 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

And this may bring us to the fact already touched
upon in a previous note, that St. Hugh was obviously
very far from sharing the views of so many Anglican
writers of the present day, who regard the appropriation
of benefices to religious houses as a gross piece of
injustice and a crying example of "monkish greed and
selfishness." That the practice might lead and did
lead to abuses no one will be disposed to deny ; still
the evil was not inherent in the institution itself, but
contingent and accidental, resulting in most cases from
the decay of the religious spirit in particular monas-
teries. As long as a community of monks or canons
consisted on the whole of God-fearing men living under
regular discipline, they might very reasonably be
depended upon to provide for the adequate discharge
of those duties which were involved in the cure of souls
either in pvopria persona or by deputy. Surely it was
a thousand times better that the surplus funds of such
benefices should be devoted to monastic purposes,
in which works of charity and utility undoubtedly
played a conspicuous part, than that they should go
to fill the pockets of some hanger-on of the Court, a
pluralist or a layman who never came within a hundred
miles of the parish of which he was " parson," and who
cared nothing at all about the services of the church or
the souls of his parishioners. Yet that was practically
the alternative under the conditions of the time. The
more Canon Perry and others insist upon the ignorance
or the scandalous lives of the clergy at that epoch, the
more ample the justification they afford for the action
of all the most respected members of the English
Episcopate who, like St. Hugh, endowed religious
houses freely with churches and church tithes. Which,

Salva honcsta sustentacione vicariontm <// in cis ministrabunt. See also
the charters of St. Hugh to Eynsham, an abstract of which has been
printed by Bishop White Kennett in his Parochial Antiquities, i. p. 194.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 323

we may ask, was better, that these tithes and dues
should be spent in raising some splendid chapter-house,
or fratry, or abbey church, with at least a fair chance-
that it might be given even more directly to the uses
of hospitality or the service of God's poor, or that it
should be spent in buying gowns or building a lodging
for the poor creature who was not and in those days
could not be the parson's wife ? l This was the form
in which the question practically presented itself to
St. Hugh and to many another good prelate of his
time. His conclusion was that providing always a
decent competence was secured to the priest (the
" perpetual vicar " who held the cure of souls in the
parish), the surplus would be well spent in the support
of the monks and nuns who devoted their lives by
profession, and on the whole faithfully, to the service
of God and to good works.

It has been said above that St. Hugh was puncti-
liously truthful, even amid the formalities and verbiage
of a legal document. I think therefore that we are
justified in seeing something more than a mere con-
ventional platitude in a clause which occurs in the
earliest of his charters to Ramsey Abbey, in which he
makes to the monks a very handsome grant of Church
property. " We believe," says the Saint,-" that we are

1 We learn from Giraldus and many other sources that even in
St. Hugh's time the secular clergy in the remoter districts of England and
Wales disregarded the law of celibacy, and left sons who expected to
succeed to their father's benefice almost as a matter of right. One of the
documents issued by Pope Clement III. to St. Alban's Abbey in 1188,
referred to on p. 300, insists that the succession of a son to his father's
benefice can never be permitted. (Matt. Paris, vol. vi. pp. 45 and 52.)
" Nobis est pro certo monstratum," says the Pope, "quod personae et
vicarii, filios quos de concubinis suscipiunt, ad sacros faciunt ordines
promoveri, et eis ecclesias suas quasi rem hsereditariam post mortem
dimittunt." The Pope hints in these documents that the monks were more
likely to prove watchful guardians of the law of clerical celibacy than the
Bishops.

324 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOT,

discharging a duty of our pastoral office when with just-
moderation we assign the benefices of churches to the
uses of religious men. Hence it is that hearkening to
the prayers of our beloved sons, Robert, Abbot of
Ramsey, and the community of that house, amongst
whom we find many signs of charity and of religious
life, we ordain and grant," &c., and St. Hugh proceeds
to make over to these good Benedictines certain rents
from eight different parishes of the neighbourhood.
And despite the Bishop's sensible qualification of a
"just moderation" in such concessions, the number of
similar charters issued by him must have been con-
siderable. Several have already been referred to on
page 231, but others might be added. 1 It is note-
worthy that in many of these and similar acts, St. Hugh
not only descends into minute detail, but is careful to
guard the rights of his parish churches. There is an
interesting instance of this in a decision of his affecting
a chapel-of-ease at Hundridge, served by the Cistercian
monks of Woburn (Beds.). 2 It is stipulated that the
monks are to furnish a chaplain and a clerk for three
days in each week, the Sunday, Wednesday, and
Friday ; in Lent and Advent, however, on four days,
the Saturday being added. They are to provide
Tenebrae service on the three days of Holy Week ; and
on Christmas Day, Matins and the two first Masses.
If a feast comes in the week, it is to count as one of

1 e.g. , In the Abbreviatio Placitorum, we hear of a grant by St. Hugh
of the churches of Nockton and Duneston to the Austin Canons of
Nockton (Salva honesta suslenlacionc vimriorum, &.C.), p. 94a ; also of
a grant of his of the church of Middleton to Bewley Abbey, p. 893. Again,
in the Liber Antiquus Hugonis de Wells (p. 73), we learn that he gave
Skidbrook church to the Austin Canons of Thornton, and the churches of
Marton, Newton, and Norton to the Canons of the Hospital, Lincoln.
To Eynsham and Osney he seems to have been equally generous. For
some charters of his to Reading Abbey, see Kennel, Parochial Antiquities,
i. p. 194.

- Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 32 a.

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 325

the regular days ; and the monks are to supply all
necessary church furniture. But the Bishop insists
that on principal festivals, to wit, on Christmas Day
for the High Mass, on the Purification, Good Friday,
Easter, Pentecost, and the feast of the Dedication of
the Church, those who ordinarily use the chapel-of-ease
must recognize the rights of the parish church of
Chesham and attend service there.

I am inclined, therefore, to think that although the
accidental preservation of Hugh de Wells' Book of
Vicarages has led to special attention being devoted
to his work in this matter, his predecessors in the see,
and notably St. Hugh of Avalon, were just as earnest
in securing an adequate provision for the vicars who
served the parish churches. The entries in Hugh de
Wells' book are very far from including all the churches
served by vicars. I doubt if they account for even
the half. Probably the parishes omitted are those in
which the emoluments of the vicar were already
clearly defined in some legal instrument. 1 And even
in those mentioned we find a considerable number in
which the arrangement between the religious cor-
poration and its vicar is said to be ex dudum constitutis,
" in virtue of an agreement of old standing," dating
probably from St. Hugh's time, or even earlier, but not
perhaps attested in any formal document.

Finally, before taking our leave of St. Hugh in his
capacity of administrator, it may be worth while to
call attention to a collection of canons apparently
issued by St. Hugh at the commencement of his epis-
copate, seeing that they are cited by Benedict under
the year 1186. One of these provisions forbids the

1 On the first page of the book a suggestive phrase occurs in connection
with the vicarages of Osney Abbey : ' ' Ubi vicarice non fuerint prius
ordinatce per episcopum de consensu ipsorum, per Dominum Lincolniensem
(Hugh de Wells) provisum est in hunc modum," &c.

326 THE JUSTICE OF THE BISHOP,

exacting of any fee for the appointment of vicars to
chantries, where I am inclined to think that chantries
is a generic term covering all functions in which the
principal duty was the saying of Mass. For some
of these canons I know no earlier authority than this
ordinance of St. Hugh's, but nearly all of them may
be found included in the decrees of later English
Councils, e.g., those of York in 1195, and of West-
minster in 1200. The majority of St. Hugh's canons
were directed against the simoniacal practices which,
as we learn from Giraldus, were one of the great
ecclesiastical abuses in England at that day. Their
publication by the new Bishop of Lincoln shortly after
his consecration would seem to have caused some little
sensation, for the Chronicle of Benedict, in which
alone they are preserved to us, introduces them in the
following words.

" In the meantime, Bishop Hugh, while residing in
his diocese, gave edification to the people committed
to him, both by his way of life (conversatione) 1 and by
the word of paternal exhortation, and in his synods
he enjoined in virtue of their obedience both his clergy
and people to keep without fail the following decrees :

"i. That nothing should be given or received for
administering or hastening the administration of justice.

" 2. That nothing should be given or exacted of
vicars for their chantries.

" 3. That the archdeacons and their officials should
not presume without regular trial to suspend or excom-
municate 2 any church or clerk or any one else.

"4. That no layman or other person not a priest

1 Canon Perry (p. 204) translates convcrsatione "by his conversation" !
This may conceivably be meant for an archaism, but no one reading the
translation would suspect it to be such.

- Canon Perry translates suspenderc ant excommunicare by " should not
presume to fine."

AND THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 327

should have it enjoined upon him as a penance to get
Masses said.

" 5. That no Anniversary Masses or trentals or
other fixed Masses should be celebrated for temporal
gain.

" 6. That no one be admitted to the performance
of priestly functions unless it be proved that he was
ordained canonically by the Archbishop of Canterbury
or one of his suffragans.

"7. That all who hold ecclesiastical preferment
should keep their hair cut short and wear the tonsure.

" 8. That no cleric should sue another cleric in a
temporal court in matters ecclesiastical." [ED.]

CHAPTER V.
DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE.

AT the beginning of one of the Letters addressed by
Pope Celestine III. to the Bishop of Lincoln, we find
the prerogatives of the See of Peter thus solemnly
affirmed : " The Great Mediator between God and
man, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Providence is
never at fault in any of His decrees, has reserved to
the Holy Roman Church the sole power of correcting
and instructing all other Churches. To her alone
belongs the right of reforming all abuses, and approving
all that is worthy of approbation, by virtue of her
Apostolic authority." 1

The highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, as well as the
humblest of the faithful, are equally dependent on this
supreme jurisdiction, and owe an entire obedience to
the successor of St. Peter. 2 The Pope, at the head

* Migne, P.L. t. ccvi. col. 1037. The date of this Letter is June 8,

"94-

8 These are the words in which the Vatican Council has defined this
jurisdiction : " If any one says that the Roman Pontiff has only to fulfil
an office of inspection and direction, and does not possess full and supreme
power of jurisdiction over the Universal Church, not only in matters con-
cerning faith and morals, but also in those which have to do with the
discipline and government of the whole Church ; if any one says that
the Roman Pontiff only possesses the chief part of this power, and does not
possess it in its plenitude, and to its utmost extent ; or that this power is
not ordinary and immediate, both over all Churches and each individual
Church, and over all Pastors and each individual of the faithful ; let him
be Anathema." (Const itutio de Ecclesia Christi, ch. iii.)

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 329

of the great society of the Christian Church, is not like
those monarchs who reign without governing ; he is
a true father, who possesses the most complete authority
over his children, and who exercises it, without respect
of persons, by a real and continual action, either by
himself examining into the cases brought before his
tribunal, or by appointing delegates to act in his stead.
In the Letter from which we have just quoted the
opening clause, Celestine III. committed to the Bishop
of Lincoln the task of inquiring into the accusations
brought against the illegitimate son of Henry II.,
Geoffrey, then Archbishop of York, and at an earlier
period Bishop-Elect of Lincoln. After renouncing his
claim to the see of Lincoln, by order of the Holy See,
Geoffrey became Chancellor to his father, to whom he
gave numerous proofs of sincere attachment. In
accordance with a wish expressed by Henry II. before
his death, Geoffrey was elected Archbishop of York in
1190, and in 1191 was consecrated at Tours. We need
not give the history of his quarrels with William of
Longchamp, nor revive all the accusations of his
enemies. It is sufficient to say that his Canons con-
sidered his conduct more worthy of a great baron than
of a Bishop, and reproached him with neglecting his
pastoral duties, and with arbitrary and violent action
in all his official relations. The Pope, troubled at the
denunciations made to him, wished to know the truth
of the matter; and in looking round for a representative
who should possess the discretion and firmness neces-
sary for such an inquiry, his choice fell upon the
Bishop of Lincoln.

Three years before this, St. Hugh had had occasion
to show how little he was dazzled by the royal, but
illegitimate birth of his colleague in the episcopate.
Rosamund Clifford, the mother of Geoffrey, had sought
refuge in the Convent of Godstow, where she did

330 DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE.

penance for her sinful life. 1 For her sake, King
Henry II. had loaded the community at Godstow with
benefits and privileges. When Rosamund died, she
was buried in the choir of the church, and her tomb,
covered with silken draperies, was surrounded by wax-
tapers and lamps always burning, the King having left
a considerable sum of money for that purpose. One
day, the Bishop of Lincoln, in the course of his
pastoral visitations, came to Godstow, which was in
his own diocese, between Oxford and Modestow.
While praying before the altar, he was distracted by
the sight of this curious funeral monument, and asked
what it all meant. When the nuns told him who was
buried there, he burst into indignant exclamations:
" Take her away from here," he said, " her life was
scandalous. Bury her outside the church in
common graveyard. It will be a lesson to other
women to lead chaste lives. Her presence here is a

1 There seems to be absolutely no evidence for the assertion that
Rosamund Clifford was the mother of Geoffrey, although many writers
have repeated the statement. On the contrary, Walter Map, a contem-
porary, tells us positively that the name of Geoffrey's mother was Hikenai
(De Nugis Curialium, v. 6.), and Giraldus, another contemporary, describes
Rosamund as puella in 1175, and assigns to that epoch her liaison with
Henry. This last fact seems to be conclusive against the possibility
of her being Geoffrey's mother, for Geoffrey was born more than twenty
years earlier, in or about the year 1153. It is just possible that Geoffrey's
interest in Godstow, shown by his attempt to make the nunnery of
Clementhorpe dependent on it, may have suggested that he was the son
of Rosamund. It may be added that there is an equal lack of evidence
for the statement that Rosamund repented and did penance before her
death. Both St. Hugh's action as described in the text, and the famous
epitaph over her tomb rather suggest the contrary. The epitaph ran :

HIC JACET IN TUMULO ROSA MUNDI NON ROSA MUNDA ;
NON REDOLET SED OLET QU^E REDOLERE SOLET.

Walter de Clifford, Rosamund's father, is known from a charter printed
in I Higdale (iv. p. 366) to have left property to Godstow nunnery, "for
the souls of his wife Margaret Clifford, and our daughter Rosamund," but
this of course proves nothing. [Eo.]

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 331

dishonour to religion." 1 The Bishop's command was
obeyed, and the nuns thus atoned for a fault which
they had committed, perhaps through a mistaken
motive of gratitude.

The Archbishop of York must have heard of this
incident, 2 and he knew also how conscientiously the
Bishop of Lincoln had already executed a Pontifical
commission, which had for its object the annulling of
several of his sentences of excommunication. 3 To
escape from a judge whose sagacity and inflexibility
he dreaded, he appealed to Rome, and left his diocese
before the arrival of St. Hugh. But this emergency
also had been anticipated and provided for in the
Pope's Letter. In accordance with the instructions
contained in it, the Bishop of Lincoln, accompanied
by the two assessors appointed by the Pope, the
archdeacon of Northampton and the Prior of Pontefract,
assembled the Abbots and clergy of the diocese in York
Cathedral. It was the 8th of January ? 1195, and after
making the inquiries desired by Pope Celestine, Hugh
fixed the ist of June following as the limit within
which Geoffrey was bound to present himself before
the Holy Father.

This duty being accomplished he withdrew to his
own diocese, and we do not even find that he was
present at the Council of York, which was held on the
i4th and i5th of June, under the presidency of Arch-
bishop Hubert, in his capacity of Papal Legate. To
the decrees passed by this assembly Hugh could not
have been indifferent. They contain many excellent

1 Roger de Hoveden, ad an. 1191 ; Ann. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii.
p. 104.

2 The fact that there is nothing to show that Geoffrey resented it
affords further reason to believe that Rosamund was not his mother.

3 Migne, P.L. vol. 206, col. 969; Jaffe-Lowenfeld, n. 16829 (February
March, 1192).

332 DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE

provisions for the reverent custody of the Blessed
Sacrament, for the reform of the lives of the clergy,
and for the suppression of various simoniacal practices,
ending with the clause, " Saving in all things the
authority and dignity of the Holy Roman Church." 1
Hugh who was so keenly sensitive to all that affected
the religious welfare of people and clergy, cannot have
failed to rejoice over these measures of reform, and to
congratulate the Archbishop on their promulgation.

During this time, Geoffrey himself had obtained a
new delay from Rome, and as he did not even then appear
on the day fixed, his canons implored St. Hugh to use
the power given him and to suspend their Archbishop.
But Hugh wished to leave the responsibility of so grave
a sentence with the Pope. " I would rather be
suspended myself," he said, " than suspend another
Bishop, in a case like this." 2 Doubtless with his usual

1 These canons may be found in Hoveden, vol. iii., and of course in
Wilkins and Mansi. Several of them only re-echoed the ordinances drawn
up by St. Hugh himself, to which reference has been made in the note at
the end of the last chapter. [Eo.]

2 It is interesting to note that St. Hugh must have been well acquainted
with Geoffrey. In 1189 he and Geoffrey, who was then Elect of York,
attended William, the King of Scotland, to Canterbury, when he came to do
homage to Richard on the accession of the latter (R. de Diceto, vol. ii.
p. 72). In refusing to suspend the Archbishop in 1195, Hugh was probably
influenced by his own personal knowledge of the many noble qualities in
Geoffrey's character ; and it is a striking fact that in every case in which
the Pope was not acting merely upon the report of others, but after a full
examination of the cause, he seems to have decided in the Archbishop's
favour. So it was in 1196, when Geoffrey at last went to Rome in person,
so again in 1199, at the beginning of the reign of Innocent III., and so in
1207, when the Pope put the Church of York under an interdict on account
of the treatment of the Archbishop. That Geoffrey was violent and
impracticable cannot be denied, but he had many redeeming traits, and it
will always be remembered to his honour, that when all the other sons of
Henry II. turned against him he alone showed him a constant and devoted
fidelity. "Geoffrey seems," says Bishop Stubbs, "to have resembled
Richard in his nobler traits and in his less repulsive faults ; to have been
generous, impulsive, and open-hearted. But, like Ishmael, his hand was

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 333

penetration he foresaw how the affair would end. The
Pope did actually, it is true, pronounce sentence of
suspension against Archbishop Geoffrey, and com-
missioned St. Hugh to publish the sentence. 1 But,
whether it was that some new testimony came to light
in his favour, or whether he really gave serious signs of
amendment, certain it is that, on betaking himself, to
Rome, Geoffrey was fully reconciled to the Holy See, and
released from all censures. The end of his life was a
noble reparation for whatever irregularities there had
been in the past. After obtaining the hearty support
of Pope Innocent III. first against Richard and then
against King John, he had to fly the country on account
of his courageous defence of the rights of his Church,
and died in exile in 1213.

Of the edifying death of Hugh de Nonant, the
Bishop of Coventry, something has already been said in
an earlier chapter. This prelate also, and probably
with much more serious reason, had given considerable
anxiety to the Holy See. His own judgment of himself,
in the remorse of those last months at Bee, was so
severe, that he declared he would consider himself
happy to purchase God's forgiveness at the cost of
remaining in Purgatory until the Day of Judgment. In
his case also, St. Hugh had been delegated by Pope
Celestine III. to execute a sentence passed by the
Supreme Pontiff. It would take too long to recount all
the varying phases of the career of Hugh Nonant, and
especially the details of the long campaign he carried
on against his monastic Chapter of Coventry. One

against every man and every man's hand against him. Otherwise he
left behind him the reputation of personal temperance and a pure life."
Preface to Hoveden, iv. p. Ixxvii. It was no small praise to say of one who
was esteemed so worldly an ecclesiastic and who had so long delayed to
take Orders : Vir quidem fuit magnce abstinently et sumitue puritatis.
(Historians of the Churck of York, vol ii. p. 400.) [E.D.]
1 Migne, P.L. t. ccvi. p. 1127 ; Jaffe, n. 17302.

334 DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE.

document issued by Pope Celestine and two by
Innocent III., 1 are directed to the Bishop of Lincoln,
associated in each case with the celebrated Samson,
Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, bidding them execute the
mandate of the Holy See for the restoration of the
Benedictine monks whom the Bishop of Coventry had
forcibly ejected from his Cathedral Church, supplying
their place with secular canons. [We do not know
anything of the share which St. Hugh took in the
execution of this commission. The Chronicle of Jocelyn
of Brakelond perhaps not unnaturally represents the
Abbot of St. Edmund's as playing the chief part, and
as the only one of the commissioners who was really
active in the cause of the expelled monks, 2 but we may
be quite sure that these two fearless and upright men,
who had so man}' good qualities in common, would have
found themselves in substantial agreement in matters of
principle. That they experienced no great difficulty in
acting cordially together, may be inferred from the
fact that they were associated again by Innocent III. in
the commission appointed by him to give judgment in
so extremely delicate and thorny a controversy as that
between the monks of Christ Church and the Arch-

1 Jaffe-Lowenfeld, n. 17600 (Dec. 29. 1197) ; Potthast, n. 253 (June 3,
1198) and n. 588 (Feb. 3, 1199).

- Hrakelond, in fact, asserts distinctly that the two most eminent of
the three commissioners, viz : the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Bishop of Lincoln, hung back, as if they wished to curry favour with the
secular clergy, and that Abbot Sampson alone was zealous in the cause of
the restoration of the monks. His words are : " Convocatis ergo partibus
apud Oxneford receperunt judices literas precatorias a domino Rege ut
negotium illud poneretur in respectum. Archiepiscopo et episcopo dissi-
mulantibus et tacentibus et quasi clericorum favorem venantibus, solus
abbas aperte loquebatur, monachus pro monachis de Coventria, eorum
causam publice fovens et defendens. " (Roll Series, vol. i. p. 295.) This may
very easily have been true of Archbishop Hubert, but it seems unlikely
that St. Hugh would have supported the cause of the intruded canons.
[ED.]

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 335

bishop of Canterbury, then Legate, Justiciar, and
Regent of the kingdom. But of this celebrated dispute
we shall have to speak in a future chapter.]

The causes hitherto referred to were famous and
important quarrels in which the whole kingdom was in
some measure interested, but we also meet with
St. Hugh's name in connection with sundry minor
commissions of the Holy See in which he acted as judge
delegate, giving his time and thought ungrudgingly to
see that right was done. One such case which has
been preserved to us, was that of an ecclesiastic named
William, in the diocese of York, whose enemies
had violently ejected him from the church to which he
had been instituted. The lord of the manor had put
his own brother into the rectory thus vacated, and
announced his determination of supporting the intruder
by force of arms. What could the priest William do ?
After finding that all his own efforts were in vain, he
decided to commit his cause to the energy and sense of
justice of the Bishop of Lincoln. When all others had
turned their backs upon him, St. Hugh pronounced in
his favour and lent him most effective support. In the
Pope's name he pronounced sentence of excommunica-
tion upon the intruding rector and all his abettors.
Once more, the vengeance of God confirmed the verdict
of His servant. Some of the guilty persons went out of
their minds ; others perished by violent and sudden
deaths ; others again lost their sight, by a disease in
which they suffered agonies of pain. In the end, justice
was done and the priest was reinstated in the church
which was rightly his.

On another occasion, two poor orphans appealed to
Rome, and asked that their case might be judged by
the Bishop of Lincoln. They had been unjustly
deprived of the greater part of their inheritance, by a
rich and influential man in London, named Jordan de

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE.

Turri. 1 On the appointed day, this man appeared
before St. Hugh. He was accompanied by a crowd of
influential supporters, who audaciously forbade the
Bishop to proceed with the case, and threatened him
with the vengeance of the King, adding, it would seem,
that if the Bishop persisted, the city of Lincoln should
be made to feel the effects of their vengeance. The
assessors who were trying the case with our Saint, were
of opinion that it would be better to give way, but the
Saint hardly seemed to pay attention to the advice they
were proffering. He recollected himself for a few
moments, to ask for guidance from on high, and then,
inspired by the Father of orphans, he turned to Jordan
de Turri, and thus addressed him : " Jordan, in spite of
my affection for you, I cannot put your interests before
the interests of God. It is true that neither these poor
children, nor my colleagues, nor myself, can hope to
gain anything in a struggle with you and your powerful
friends. But I will tell you what I am going to do, I
speak for myself only, but I want to discharge my
conscience. I shall write to our Sovereign Lord the
Pope, and tell him that you are the only man in this
kingdom who dares to contest his jurisdiction, and that
you alone are defying his authority." The Bishop
as he expected, had no need to execute his threat, or
resort to any extreme measures. Jordan was conquered ;
he knew, says the author of the Magna Vita, what
weight such a report would carry when it reached the
ears of the Sovereign Pontiff. Hugh's reputation stood
too high at Rome for his words to be disregarded.
Jordan accordingly lost no time in coming to terms

1 The name of Jordan de Turri uitrn appears in contemporary records,
and he must have been an influential man. (Cf. Rotuli Curia Regis,
1'alijruve, vol. i. pp. 232. 34 \, 420; Gr^ii Roll of the Pipe, Hunter, p. 225;
Abbrcviatio PLiciturum, p. 8 ; Rotuli Charts nun, p. 155.)

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 337

with the complainants, and St. Hugh held him
rigorously to full restitution. 1

It does not seem in any way strained to interpret
this language of our Saint as a strong testimony of his
loyalty to the Holy See. But as to that, there can be
no better evidence than the fact that he was appointed
one of the Papal delegates in every really momentous
cause which came up for decision during the fourteen
years of his episcopate. 2

NOTE TO BOOK III., CHAPTER V.

It is difficult to quit the subject of St. Hugh's various
commissions as delegate of the Holy See, without a
reference to the epoch-making articles of Professor
Maitland which have appeared in the English Historical
Review for 1896 and 1897, on " Canon Law in England."
No one has before shown so clearly how irreconcilable
are the real facts of ecclesiastical procedure in England
previous to the Reformation with the " Continuity "
theory now in favour among Anglicans. Ecclesiastical
law, he has proved, in this country as in the rest of
Europe, was not archiepiscopal law, but Papal law. So
far from England standing apart from and unaffected
by the pronouncements of the Bishop of Rome, the
Corpus Juris Canonici is largely made up of decisions
given in answer to appeals for guidance submitted by

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 13.

2 Yet on the ground of his delaying to excommunicate the enemies of
William of Longchamp, and his unwillingness to suspend the Archbishop
of York both which acts were thoroughly justified by the subsequent
action of the Pope himself Canon Perry can write : " Either therefore Hugh
believed the charges (against Geoffrey) greatly exaggerated, or else in this
as in the former case, he refused to be the minister of the Pope to interfere
with the discipline of the Anglican Church. There was not indeed in spite
of his monastic training much of the spirit of subordination in the Bishop
of Lincoln." (Life, p. 261.) [Eo.]

W

33 8 DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE.

English Bishops. " Explain it how we may," says
Professor Maitland, " the fact that more than a third
of Alexander III.'s permanently important decretals
have English cases for their subject-matter is, or ought
to be, one of the most prominent facts in the history of
the English Church. As a maker of case law, Alexander
is second to no Pope unless it be to Innocent III., and
a surprisingly large number of the cases which evoke
case law from these two mitred lawyers are English
cases." 1

But what Professor Maitland more particularly
insists upon is the importance of the doctrine of the
Pope's universal jurisdiction, as every man's "Ordinary,"
when conjoined with the practice of delegation. It was
universally recognized that the Roman Curia was not
only an omni-competent court of appeal, but also an
omni-competent court of first instance : in other words,
that the Pope had an acknowledged right to take the
trial of any ecclesiastical cause whatever out of the
hands of the ordinary judges, the Bishops and Arch-
bishops, and to try it himself at Rome or by his
delegates here in England. It is these prerogative
faculties which we have seen St. Hugh in this chapter
so frequently invested with, and in this character of
Papal delegate, the representative of the Holy See,
were he but simple Abbot or Prior, stood above Bishop
or Archbishop, wielding a power before which all other
ecclesiastical authority must bow. " What we may
call the natural order of the English Church is always
being inverted, the last becomes first, the first last,
when the Pope pleases. A cause which concerns the
Archbishop of Canterbury will be committed to one of
his suffragans, or (and this must be still more galling)
to the rival primate." 5

1 "William of Drogheda and the Universal Ordinary," English
Historical Review, Oct. 1897, p. 640.
a Ibid. p. 648.

DELEGATE OF THE HOLY SEE. 339

And yet, as Professor Maitland shows, this state of
things was not merely acquiesced in in England, but it
was largely the action of the English Bishops them-
selves that brought it about. " If the Pope," he
remarks, " acquired an almost unlimited power of
declaring law, if all the important spiritual cases
passed out of the hands of the ' ordinary ' judges into
the hands of Papal delegates, the Bishops of England
were more responsible for this good or bad result than
were the Bishops of any other country." 1 Nor was
this merely a matter of practical policy into which the
prelates had been constrained by Papal usurpation.
Theory went hand in hand with practice. " It is
Grosseteste," Professor Maitland reminds us, " Grosse-
teste, the theologian, the Bishop, the immortal Lin-
colniensis, who will preach with fervour the doctrine
that the whole of a Bishop's power is derived from, or
at all events through, the Pope, and thus make all
thought of federalism an impiety. The Bishop shines
with a reflected light which will pale and vanish when-
ever the Papal sun arises." 2 [Eo.]

i P. 6 47 . 2 P. 635.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EUCHARIST 1C VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

ST. HUGH had yet another mission to fulfil, not only in
his own diocese, but throughout the whole Church in
England, of which at that epoch he was the most
shining light. It was at the express command of the
Holy See that he reluctantly undertook this new duty ;
but he was also encouraged in it by God Himself, who
sent him supernaturally a wonderful message, as we are
now about to relate.

In the month of November, in the year 1194 or
HQ5, 1 and on the day after the feast of All Saints,
a young cleric, about twenty-five years of age, was
kneeling before an altar of the Blessed Virgin, devoutly
reciting the Psalter for the souls of the Faithful Departed.
The remembrance of his father, who had died only a
few years before in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
came vividly before him, and interrupted his prayer.
He threw himself on his knees, while the tears gushed
from his eyes, and poured out his soul to God. As he
knelt on, still deeply moved, he distinctly heard a voice
which seemed to come from the altar utter these words :
" Rise, my son, and go at once to the Bishop of Lincoln.
Tell him, from God, that he must urgently draw the

1 There is nothing in the Magna Vita to determine the date of this
vision. The Archbishop referred to in the course of it, however, must
have been Hubert. This appears from what the biographer says in bk. v.
ch. 5. In that case the vision cannot have taken place before 1193.

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 341

attention of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the state
of the clergy in England. Reform is grievously needed,
and the Divine Majesty is deeply offended by innumer-
able abuses. Sins of the flesh are rife and simony of
all kinds. 1 . . . The vices of the shepherds are com-
municated to their flock ; great and small are infected
with the contagion, and the anger of God will soon fall
upon the inhabitants of this kingdom. Nothing but a
speedy punishment of the guilty can avert His wrath."
Trembling with fear, the young cleric asked himself
what this voice could be. Unable to solve the mystery,
and attributing it to his own imagination, he determined
to go on reciting the Psalter. 2 But as soon as he had

1 I do not reproduce at length the terms in which, according to the
Magnet Vita, the moral corruption and the avarice of the clergy were
denounced by the heavenly voice. Under the sin of luxuries, with which
the clergy are charged, any Englishman before the Reformation would
of course have understood the maintenance by priests of wives, or rather
focaricB or concubince, as the canons roundly term them. It is perhaps his
obtuseness to this fact which permits Canon Perry to make the astounding
statement : ' ' There is reason to believe that St. Hugh took a very common
sense view of this matter (of clerical celibacy), and did not attempt any
wild crusade against the uxorati sacer dotes" (p. 149.) Canon Perry,
of course, refrains from explaining what ' ' reason to believe " this he has
discovered. Certainly it is extraordinary that if these were the views
which were notoriously professed by St. Hugh, he should have been
singled out as the one Bishop in England capable of inaugurating the
moral reformation of the clergy. [Eo.J

2 There are several points in this narrative, as recounted in the Magna
Vita, which are of interest to students of the ecclesiastical usages of the
middle ages. In the first place, we learn that there was a custom of
reciting not merely the Office for the Dead, but the entire Psalter, on
All Souls' Day, and this not merely for monks in monasteries or canons in
collegiate churches, but for individual clerics residing apart. The cleric,
in his narrative, explains that he had already got as far as the loist Psalm ;
and he was presumably going on to the end : ego siquidem priusquam heec
audirem psalterio jam excurso usque ad centesimum primum psalmum, &c.

Secondly, the cleric describes himself as singing the Psalter, cum
psalterium decantarem, but from the fact that he was alone in the church,
and from what follows, it appears that he was only reciting it aloud.
Hence we may reasonably infer that the word cantare, when used either

342 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

made the sign of the Cross, and repeated a few verses,
he heard the voice once more saying in the same tone
exactly the same words. Then the cleric thought that
some mysterious council was being held, upon which
he had no right to intrude, and, though he could see no
one, he rose to leave the church. But at the door he
was stopped by a pious woman who was continually
praying there. She said to him : " God has spoken to
you twice, and has given you a command which I do
not understand ; but I am quite certain of the fact that
God has spoken to you." Still more troubled by this,
the young ecclesiastic left the church, and passed the
rest of the day in fasting and prayer. No sooner had
he lain down to sleep, than he again heard the same
mysterious voice saying to him : " It is to you I speak,
my son, who are now taking your rest : go as soon as
possible to the venerable Bishop of Lincoln, and tell
him what I have twice already said to you." " But,"
objected the cleric, "how can I expect so great and
distinguished a man to listen to me ? I am too young
and inexperienced. I hardly dare to address him."
" He will believe you at once," replied the voice ; " you
need only tell him what you will see upon the altar
during his Mass, on the very day you first come into
his presence ; and that will fully confirm the truth of
your message. Hesitate no longer, but do as you have
been bidden."

The cleric promised to obey. He slept for a few
hours, rose before daybreak, and set off for the manor
of Bugden, where the Saint was then staying.

of Masses or psalms by mediaeval writers, is not always to be interpreted
literally.

Thirdly, he tells us that he left the church, adorato Domino, signans
mihi frontem. The rarity of such references to any salutation of the
Blessed Sacrament, makes it seem worth while to call attention to this
instance here. [Eo.]

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 343

It was a Saturday. The choir of the church was
filled with ecclesiastics who had come to assist at the
Bishop's Mass. A party of monks had brought some
vestments to be blessed, and a very beautiful chalice to
be consecrated. Hugh complied with their request,
taking occasion to commend the exquisite workmanship
of the chalice and to reflect upon the indifference of so
many priests, who spend all their revenues upon them-
selves and nothing upon the service of the altar. Then,
returning to the sanctuary, he began his Mass. The
crowd of ecclesiastics assisted at it, and among the rest
our cleric, charged with the heavenly message. He
fixed his eyes on the Bishop and the altar, and waited
for the promised sign.

The Mass went on as usual, until the solemn
moment of consecration came. As the man of God
lifted the host a little from the altar and blessed it
before pronouncing the solemn words which would
convert it into the Body of Christ, the cleric saw in
the same instant a little Child, very small but of Divine
and entrancing beauty, resting in the Bishop's hands.
He burst into tears, and adored the Infant-God, who
thus manifested His Real Presence in the Mystery of
the Altar. The apparition was renewed a second time
when the Sacred Host was raised again, just before the
fraction which precedes the Communion. " In this
elevation also," says the Magna Vita, " he beheld, under
the same image as before, the Son of the Most High,
born of the Virgin, offering Himself to His Father for
the salvation of men." 1

1 The minute description of this occurrence given in the Magna. Vita
seems to me clearly to prove that no elevation of the Host, in the modern
understanding of the term, was practised in the diocese of Lincoln at the
date when it was written (c. 1214). The cleric sees the Infant first when the
host is elevated from the altar before the consecration ubi elevatam in
altum hostiam benedicere moris est max in Christi corpus mystica sanctifi-
catione convertendam. He then continued shedding tears of devotion until

344 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

As soon as the Mass was finished, the cleric
approached the holy Bishop, and asked for an inter-
view. St. Hugh took him behind the altar, and told
him to speak freely. Then the young ecclesiastic faith-
fully related all he had heard and seen, concluding
thus : " I arrived just before the Introit of the Mass.
I attentively watched your Holiness, 1 during the cele-
bration of the Divine Mysteries, not forgetting to look
at the altar also. And I clearly saw in your hands the
Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the form of a
little Child, whom you twice raised above the chalice.
Surely, you yourself must have seen the same ; only in
a much more perfect manner, because you were quite
close to our Lord, and far more worthy to behold
Him."

St. Hugh answered by mingling his tears with those
of this holy youth. Then, after much pious conversa-
tion, he dried his own eyes and those of his messenger,
and embracing him tenderly, bade him speak of this
marvel to no one else. He urged him further to enter
a monastery, in order not to expose any longer to the
dangers of the world the soul which had been favoured
by that blessed vision. The young man promised to
follow this advice. Then the Bishop led him to the
refectory, placed him near himself during the repast,

the Host was raised from the altar a second time, shortly before the
fraction, when he was enabled to see the Divine Infant again tempus
omne continuabat in lacrimis quod intercessit ab ilia elevatione usquequo
iterum earn levari cerneret frangendam jam et sumendatn sub trina sui
partitione. It seems to me quite incredible that the biographer could refer
in such terms to these minute " elevations," if it had then been the custom
to raise the Sacred Host above the head, as at present, to be adored by the
people. (Magna Vita, p. 236.) [E.D.]

1 The phrase, "your Holiness," was not at this period restricted by
usage, as it is at present, to the person of the Pope. It may frequently be
found in the letters of that age as a term of mere courtesy in addressing
Abbots and Bishops. [ED.]

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 345

and sent him away on the next day, with his blessing,
to a monk who was one of his special friends.

The new Religious lived a holy life in the cloister,
where he was favoured with numerous other revela-
tions, many of which were set down in writing by the
order of St. Hugh, and were scattered far and wide.
It was from the lips of this monk that the Bishop's
chaplain and biographer afterwards gathered the facts
which we have just been relating.

Following the example set us in the Magna Vita, we
may add the account of another Eucharistic miracle
which afterwards gave the Saint an opportunity for a
great act of faith.

During his last journey in France, St. Hugh stopped
at a little village called Jouy, between Paris and Troyes.
According to his usual custom, he invited the parish
priest to his own table. The priest declined the proffered
honour, but made his appearance after dinner, to pay
his respects to the Bishop, and also to speak to him
of a wonderful thing which had happened to himself
many years before. He was an aged priest, of venerable
aspect, and bore in his emaciated body the marks of
continued austerities. He respectfully saluted the
Bishop, but had not the courage to address him
directly, and therefore communicated the following
facts to some of the clergy who stood around:

" I was made a priest when very young, too young
in fact, and I had the misfortune to commit a grievous
sin, and the still more terrible misfortune to dare to say
Mass without having purified my soul by sacramental
confession. One day, at the very moment of conse-
cration, I asked myself if it were possible that such a
vile sinner as I, could indeed change the bread and
wine into the Body and Blood of the God of all purity.
The doubt kept haunting me all the Mass, until the
moment came for the breaking of the Host, when

34 6 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

suddenly, on separating the two fragments, Blood
spurted out, and the portion of the Host I held in my
hand assumed the appearance of Flesh, reddened by
the Blood from the other half. I was overwhelmed
with awe and terror; I let everything fall into the
chalice. I covered the chalice with the paten, and
the paten with the sacred pall, 1 and finished the Mass
as well as I could. As soon as every one had retired,
I reverently placed the miraculous Host in a fitting
receptacle near the altar, where to this day It remains
in the same state. I set out for Rome, and told the
Pope all that had occurred, making full confession of
my guilt to him, and receiving absolution. I beg of
you, my brothers, to intercede for me with your
holy Bishop, that he will grant me his prayers,
and also that he will come to my church, bringing
you all with him, in order to venerate our precious
treasure."

The clergy in attendance repeated these words to
the man of God, expecting that he would at once order
them to accompany him to the church, to view this
miracle. But they were mistaken. St. Hugh simply
said : " Very well. Let them keep, and welcome, the
token of their want of faith. But why should we go
and see it ? There is no need for us to see with our
bodily eyes that which we see clearly with the eye of
faith every day in the Mass."

He gave his blessing to the parish priest of Jouy,
and dismissed him. Nor would he allow any of his
own clergy to satisfy their curiosity. " No," he said,
" the things of faith we believe with a certainty which
is even higher and stronger than the facts which we

i Sacra palla. I am unable to say whether this was really what we
now call a pall, or whether the writer uses the term to describe the
corporal. [Eo. J

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 347

perceive by our bodily senses." 1 His burning words had
an effect which he never intended. They confirmed
the suspicions which his chaplain and other intimate
friends had long entertained of the supernatural visions
by which he was favoured at the altar. 2

We can well understand the reasons for the silence
he always observed on this subject. His intense
humility naturally induced him to conceal the Divine
favours which were bestowed upon him, and he also
doubtless felt, with St. Peter, that the " prophetical
word," i.e., the word of revelation, was a better ground
of faith than even the testimony of a vision. 3

Nevertheless, the holy Bishop of Lincoln is one of
those whom the Church delights to honour as in a
special manner associated with the Blessed Sacrament,
and as rewarded by the deeper consolations of a super-
natural insight into this mystery. He is represented
in sacred art, holding a chalice, above which appears

1 A similar fact is related of the hero of the crusade against the
Albigenses. One day some persons came hastily to tell the Count de
Montfort that the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ had appeared
visibly upon the altar, in the hands of the priest. ' ' Those of you who
have no faith," he said, "had better go and see it. I have no wish to see
it, for I firmly believe all that the Church teaches with regard to the
Sacrament of the Altar."

2 Magna Vita, bk. v. chs. 4, 15, and 18. Canon Perry, Mr. Froude,
and other Anglican writers, lay great stress upon the incident recounted
above, and quote it as evidence that St. Hugh rose superior to the super-
stitions of his time and was no believer in miracles. The keenness of the
Saint about accumulating relics, which was carried, as we shall see, to such
a point that he almost scandalized his own contemporaries, would alone be
a sufficient refutation of this hasty inference. To myself, a careful perusal
of the story of the priest of Jouy, as told in the Magna Vita, only suggests
that St. Hugh shrewdly suspected an imposture, though he was too
charitable to publish his suspicions without fuller evidence. No well-
instructed Catholic, however convinced he may be of the reality of the
miraculous powers enjoyed by the Saints, would hesitate to allow that the
mediaeval readiness to recognize a miracle in every unusual event also gave
occasion for many deplorable impostures. [ED.]

* 2 St. Peter i. 19.

34 8 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

the form of a little Child. 1 And this symbol harmonizes
well with the other which specially belongs to him, and
of which we have spoken before. The swan at his feet
is an emblem of his purity and courage ; the chalice in
his hands shows the source from whence all his virtues
sprang. It was from the altar, in very deed, that he
drew the strength of his supernatural life ; it was the
Bread of the strong which filled him with undaunted
courage ; it was the Wine which makes virgins that
inspired his angelic chastity. Supported by his devotion
to the Holy Eucharist, he could rise superior to all
trials and discouragements. We have a new proof of
this which now claims our attention. It was at church,
and during the Holy Mass, that Hugh of Lincoln was
to gain his most splendid victory over Richard Cceur
de Lion.

NOTE TO BOOK III., CHAPTER VI.

The reader who has followed the story of the cleric
recounted in the earlier part of the foregoing chapter
may possibly be tempted to ask whether anything is
known of the revelations which are said to have been
written down by the order of St. Hugh, and which
afterwards, according to the Magna Vita, were widely
circulated in England. It is satisfactory to be able to
answer this question in the affirmative. The revelations
exist and have long been accessible in print in an
abridged form, though I do not think that up to the
present time the name of St. Hugh of Lincoln has ever
been connected with them.

In the Flores Historiarum of Roger of Wendover, and
again in the Chronica Major of Matthew Paris, there is

1 In the church of the Carthusian monastery at Pavia there is a superb
rendering of this theme painted in fresco by Carlo Carlone. The Infant
Jesus appears to St. Hugh during the Mass, the swan stands beside him,
and above are a group of admiring angels.

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 349

given under the year 1196, a rather lengthy document
which is described as a vision of the future state by a
certain monk of Eynsham. In its general features the
vision belongs to a class of which a good many examples
were current in the Middle Ages, beginning with the
apocryphal "Apocalypse of Peter" and "Acts of
Thomas" in sub- Apostolic times, and culminating, it
may be said, in the Divina Commedia of Dante. 1 Bede,
as is well known, incorporates in his History two
notable revelations of this kind, those of Fursa and
Drythelm, and there were several others popular at a
later date. In the actual lifetime of St. Hugh I do not
know of any English vision which became famous
except that of the monk of Eynsham, certainly of none
that was anything like so widely disseminated. This
fact alone might have been sufficient to suggest that
the clerk who conceived himself entrusted with a super-
natural message for St. Hugh, and who afterwards by
his direction entered a monastery, may have been no
other than the recipient of the visions which became so
celebrated.

<f nearer examination makes the case more probable.
Ralph of Coggeshall, a contemporary, who also gives
a brief account of the revelation in his chronicle, tells
us that the Eynsham monk was " young in age though
a veteran in regularity of life," and that he had but
recently 'quitted the world for the cloister. Again we
have to remember that the Abbey of Eynsham was
in St. Hugh's diocese, and that at the date of these
visions (1196), the Saint, as we have seen above, was
brought into very intimate relations with the monks on
account of the death of the Abbot in the previous year,
and his own most energetic efforts to keep the abbey
from falling into the King's hands. We may safely
assume that nothing could have happened and no
1 See Alessandro d'Ancona, / Precursors di Dante.

350 THE EVCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

considerable document have been given to the world
at Eynsham in 1196 without St. Hugh being aware of
it. Lastly, we know that Adam, St. Hugh's chaplain,
the author of the Magna Vita, became Abbot of
Eynsham, and that he had also probably been a monk
there before his elevation to the higher dignity. When,
therefore, he tells us that he had frequently heard all
the details of the story from the person who had seen
the little Child in St. Hugh's hands, and when we find
that the purport of the Divine message to St. Hugh is
also practically the theme of the Eynsham monk's
disclosures about the punishments of the world to come,
the suspicion becomes very strong that the recipients
of these two supernatural communications must be one
and the same person.

An important piece of evidence which I have
recently found quoted in Mr. H. L. Ward's Catalogue
of Romances at the British Museum, converts this con-
jecture into a certainty. In a thirteenth century
manuscript x belonging to our great national library,
there is contained an account of the vision of Hell,
Purgatory, and Paradise, seen by one Thurkill, a
husbandman of Essex, in the year 1206. The author or
editor of this account, as Mr. Ward has shown, 2 is no
other than Ralph of Coggeshall, the chronicler, and he
has prefixed to the narrative itself a preface in which a
few comments are made upon some earlier visions of the
same class.

"And yet another vision," he says, "has been
clearly recorded which was seen in the Monastery of
Eynsham in the year 1196; and Adam the Subprior of
the monastery, a most grave and religious man, wrote this
narrative in an elegant style, even as he heard it from
the mouth of him whose soul had been set free from the
body for two days and nights. I do not believe that
i Royal, 13, D. v. - Vol ii. p. 507.

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 351

such a man, so religious and so learned, would have
written these statements until they had been sufficiently
tested; he being at that time moreover chaplain to
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, a most holy man ; and
Thomas Prior of Binham [in Norfolk] , who was then
Prior of Eynsham, and who examined the evidence
closely, has since assured me that he feels no more
doubt of the truth of the vision than of the Crucifixion of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And so much I have wished to
say because many of the Eynsham monks decry the
vision ; but every revelation is doubted of by some."

From this most interesting statement of Ralph
Coggeshall, we learn therefore that the Latin account of
the vision of the Eynsham monk was drawn up before
St. Hugh's death and by no other than his own chaplain
Adam, the author of the Magna Vita. Can any doubt
be felt that these were the revelations which were " set
down in writing by the order of St. Hugh," after much
converse between his chaplain and the monk who
received them ? l

To give any adequate account of the vision itself
would be impossible in the space at my disposal.
Curiously enough the only unabridged text now
accessible in print, is an English version, edited by
Professor Arber, from a very rare volume which issued
from Macklinia's Press about 1482. The Latin account
which appears in Wendover and Matthew Paris is very
much contracted, and it omits nearly all those personal

1 The passage in the Magna Vila runs thus : After telling us that the
young cleric, becoming a monk soon after, religiose admodum conversatus
est, the author goes on : " Cui plurima quoque spiritualium visionum.
mysteria postmodum fuiss'e revelata certissime experti sumus, ex quibus non
pauca literis dudum de- mandato sancti prassulis tradita, longe lateque
vulgata noscuntur. A cujus ore hsec ipsa quae modo retulimus frequenter
audivimus." (Magna Vita, p. 241.) The certissime experti sunms must
surely imply intimate personal relations between the writer and the
percipient of the vision.

352 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

and historical details which form the chief interest of
the vision, preserving only the account of the trance
itself, and the more general descriptions of purgatorial
torments and the scenes in which they took place. The
Vision draws a very sad picture of the moral state of
many of the clergy of the time, but in this respect it is
in thorough accord with the statements of Giraldus
Camhrensis and Wireker, and with what may reason-
ably be inferred from Papal pronouncements and the
canons of the various provincial synods. Perhaps it
may be interesting to quote the monk of Eynsham's
account of the state of suffering in which he beheld
some of those high personages well known to St. Hugh,
whose names have been most frequently cited in the
course of this history. And first for the King Henry II.:

OF A CERTAIN KING OF ENGLAND.

But what shall I say of a certain Prince and sometime
King of England that I saw, the which in his life was full
mighty among all the princes of this world. Soothly he was
on every side pressed and pained, that a man might say of
him, as St. John the Evangelist saith in his Apocalypse
thiswise: Quantum se dilatavit et in deliciis /nit, tantum dctnr
ei tormentum et luctus. That is to say, "How much he did
extend and magnify himself and was in unlawful lusts
and delights, so much give ye to him torment and heavi-
ness." Who is it that may conceive in mind what great
pains all his body and limbs were smitten with ? He sat
upon an horse that blew out of her mouth and nose a
flame black as pitch, mingled with a smoke and stench of
Hell, unto the grievous torment of him that was set above
the which was armed at all pieces as he should have gone
to battle. Truly the armour that he wore, was to him
intolerable pain, for they were as bright burning iron is, when
it is beaten with hammers and smiteth out fiery sparkles,
by the which he was withinwards all to-burnt, and without-
wards the same armour burnt in full great heat, and loaded
him that wore it with full sore burden. ... In sooth he
would have given all the world if he might have been

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 353

delivered from one spur with the which he was compelled
to stir his wretched horse to run, whereby often-times he
fell down headlong. . . . Thus cruelly was he punished for
the unrightful shedding of men's blood and for the foul
sin of adultery which he used. In these two things he
deadly offended often-times, and those cruel tormentors,
wicked fiends, full greatly with derisions and scorns up-
braided him because he would be avenged on men that
slew his venery, as hart and hind, buck and doe, and such
other, the which by the law of nature ought to be slain to
every man, and therefore some of them he put to death, or
else cruelly would maim them : and for all this he did never
but little penance as long as he lived. Also full miserably
he complained that neither his sons, nor his friends the
which he left alive and to whom he had got much temporal
goods, did or showed for him anything after his death for his
help and relieving. Nothing, he said, my sons and friends
have done for me in these pains. . . . Truly I saw him
somewhat eased and relieved of his pains only by the
prayers of religious men to whom in his life for God he was
full benevolent often-times, and thereby I understood
specially that he hoped to be saved. Furthermore, besides
all these things above said, full grievously he sorrowed and
was pained, for because he oppressed divers times the people
with undue taxes.

Let me add to this what the Eynsham monk tells
us of the condition in the next world of another old
friend of St. Hugh, Reginald, Bishop of Bath, the
same who had first brought him to England from the
Grande Chartreuse, and had been the constant friend
and champion of the community of Witham.

OF A BISHOP THAT WAS THERE IN PAINS, AND YET GOD
SHOWED MIRACLES FOR HIM AFTER HIS DEATH.

Now as I remember four years ago a certain Bishop was
chosen to be an Archbishop, but he was then hastily pre-
vented by death, and so deceased and left both. Truly this
Bishop was inwardly in his living full well disposed, and
religiously. For he was pure and devout in heart, and clean
X

354 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

of body, that by the use and wearing of a sharp hair shirt
and other divers penances, tamed well his own flesh. He
conformed his face and cheer, as it seemed, much after the
behaviour of secular people, and to eschew and refuse the
savour of vain glory the which is ever proud, an enemy to
virtue; he showed always in words and countenance gladness
and jocundness when he was withinwards contrite in heart
and in his affections.

Also this Bishop used, as it is said before, to punish as
well his daily faults by the which in great cures and hard
things he had offended, as he did other sins the which he
had done in his young age, by divers chastisements and often
weepings. Also in his office of bishopry he had offended
grievously in many things by his negligence, as other Bishops
did, of whom I have made mention above. Of this Bishop
I heard now openly by the saying of many folk that by him
miracles were showed and done after his death on sick people
and feeble. And I suppose it is truth that our Lord did
worship His servant 1 with such benefits to give others example
and understanding, that the hard and clean living the which
he lived inwardly pleased our Lord full well, the which
beholdeth only men's hearts. Yet found I him soothly in
^>ains, remaining to him without doubt full great meed and
rewards in the everlasting bliss of Heaven. And he that
believeth not them, the which are in the pains of Purgatory,
some time to do miracles in this world, let him read the
fourth book of the Dialogue of St. Gregory, and there he shall
see more fully an example of this thing, showed and done at
Rome of an holy man that was called Paschasius, a deacon.

Very interesting also is the account given of Arch-
bishop Baldwin of Canterbury, and his severe sufferings
in God's prison-house. The Eynsham visionary does
full justice to his "meek conversation" and life of
penance whilst he lived in the cloister as a Cistercian
monk. But with his elevation to the see of Canterbury,

1 It would be hard to find a better illustration of the mediaeval meaning
of the word worship, which has been a stumbling-block to so many. 1 1
Christ could worship, i.e., honour His servant, Catholics need nut be
afraid of "worshipping" our Blessed Lady.

THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH. 355

" alas for sorrow ! the more thereby he grew in the
sight of the people, so much he fell and decreased in
the sight of God." Most especially he is accused of
neglecting his episcopal duties and of omitting to
correct the vices of the clergy. " Unwisely he pro-
moted full unworthy persons to benefices of the Church,
and also he dreaded and was ashamed to execute the
law for (fear of) displeasing the King, by whose favour
it seemed he came to that dignity." He is therefore
represented to us as suffering very cruelly in Purgatory,
but still he finds favour and mercy by the special aid
of St. Thomas of Canterbury on account of his partici-
pation in the Crusade, and more particularly for the
hospital for pilgrims to the Holy Land which he had
founded in the East under the patronage of that holy
martyr.

Finally, I may conclude these extracts by a specimen
of the descriptive powers shown by the Eynsham monk
when, towards the end of his vision, he approaches
the confines of Paradise.

OF THE SWEET PEAL AND MELODY OF BELLS THAT HE HEARD
IN PARADISE, AND ALSO HOW HE CAME TO HIMSELF AGAIN.

And while the holy Confessor St. Nicholas this wise spake
yet with me, suddenly I heard there a solemn peal, and a
ringing of a marvellous sweetness, and as all the bells in the
world or whatsoever is of sounding had been rung together
at once. Truly in this peal and ringing brake out also a
marvellous sweetness and a variant mingling of melody
sounded withal. And I wot not whether the greatness of
melody or the sweetness of sounding of bells was more to
be wondered. And to so great a noise I took good heed and
full greatly my mind was suspended to hear it. In sooth
anon as that great and marvellous sounding and noise was
ceased, suddenly I saw myself departed from the sweet fellow-
ship of my duke and leader St. Nicholas. Then was I returned
to myself again, and anon I heard the voices of my brethren,
that stood about our bed, also my bodily strength came again

356 THE EUCHARISTIC VISIONS OF ST. HUGH.

to me a little and a little, and mine eyes opened to the use of
seeing, so as they saw right well. Also my sickness and
feebleness by the which I was long time full sore diseased,
was outwardly excluded and gone from me, and I sat up
before you so strong and mighty as I was before by it
sorrowful and heavy. 1

In the Magna Vita, 2 the author, Adam, tells us that
the same monk had prophesied that Jerusalem in their
own time would be recaptured from the Saracens. In
this case, as in the more famous instance of St. Bernard,
the prophecy was destined to remain unfulfilled, but
Adam affirms none the less his great confidence that
the prediction will be verified. " We trust the more
surely," he writes, " because many other things which
have been shown to this monk beforehand as about to
come to pass, have to our own knowledge been realized
in due course as they were foretold."

The name of this young monk, according to the copy
of the Vision in Bodleian MS., Digby, 34, was Edmund,
and this seems to have led to its being attributed by
some ignorant copyists to St. Edmund Rich, Archbishop
of Canterbury. Strange to say, it was to Eynsham that
St. Edmund's father, a most holy man, retired with the
consent of his wife shortly after the birth of the Saint,
in order to end his days as a monk. He may possibly
have known St. Hugh there, though he seems not to
have survived many years. St. Edmund's two sisters
became nuns in the convent of Catesby, a religious
house probably founded in St. Hugh's time, and
endowed by Philip de Essebi. St. Hugh's charter
confirming the endowment is still extant.

1 I have compared this printed English translation of Machlinia with
the original Latin in MS. Cotton. Cleopatra, C, xi., and I find that it
reproduces Adam's " elegant style " with reasonable fidelity. Several
interesting editorial comments of his, however, are omitted in the English
version. The Vision of the Monk of Eynsham is dealt with somewhat
more at length in an article by the present writer in The Month for
January, 1898. P. 242.

CHAPTER VII.

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

IMMEDIATELY after the message from Heaven, which
was confirmed by the apparition of the Child Jesus in
the Sacred Host, St. Hugh lost no time in appealing
to the Archbishop of Canterbury for stringent measures
of reform. He implored his Primate to occupy himself
less with State affairs, and far more with the urgent
needs of his diocese and the whole Church in England.
To this earnest request St. Hugh added the force of
example, and applied himself still more assiduously to
the work of reforming the abuses he found existing
among his own clergy. His zeal, however, only offended
the Archbishop, and on many occasions afterwards he
manifested his resentment against St. Hugh.

The threatened anger of God was not slow in
falling upon the country. Terrible scourges devastated
England. In 1196, after all the horrors of a famine,
pestilence continued the work of destruction, filling all
souls with terror, and causing many deaths. 1 Incessant
wars continued during nearly the whole of the reign of
Richard I., and although Normandy, and not England,
was the theatre of these encounters, yet England
suffered no less, as large sums of money were always in
requisition, and the people were most cruelly taxed.
Indeed, so tortured were they by these exactions, that
an ardent demagogue, William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed

1 William of Newburgh, bk. v. ch. xxi. ; Annales, Margan, p. 22,
Burton, p. 192.

35 8 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

Long Beard, nearly succeeded in raising a serious
rebellion in London. All the skill and eloquence of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Justiciar, were neces-
sary to defeat this conspiracy; and all his energy
was required to obtain the punishment of the famous
agitator, not without his incurring the reproach of
having violated the right of sanctuary. 1

Unfortunately Hubert was always too much pre-
occupied by the things of earth. As a mere secular
administrator he was successful enough, and many of
his reforms, such as, for instance, the adoption of an
uniform standard of weights and measures, were of
great utility to the nation. But as Primate and Legate
of the Holy See, his thoughts were not sufficiently
raised towards Heaven, and both the spiritual concerns
of his diocese and the interests of the Church at large
suffered proportionately. He gave a proof of this in
the last month of the year 1197. The King had com-
missioned him to raise more money, which was urgently
needed for carrying on the war with Philip Augustus,
and the Archbishop summoned a general assembly of
all the bishops and barons of England, to meet at
Oxford. The proceedings began by a speech from the
Justiciar, who enlarged on the King's necessities,
crippled as he was in the prosecution of the war by
the lack both of men and treasure. After insisting
upon the disadvantage under which Richard lay in
fighting at so great a distance from his source of
supplies, he concluded by inviting all present to
suggest some effectual means of assisting their
Sovereign at this crisis. It was soon seen, however,
that he was really in no need of suggestions, but had
come fully prepared with a plan of his own. This
scheme, which was laid before the council by one of
his friends, was that the English barons, the bishops

1 Lingard, vol. i. ch. xiii.

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 359

being included among the number, should raise a force
of three hundred knights to fight for the King beyond
the seas, and should provide the entire cost of their
maintenance during twelve months. 1

Then the discussion began. The Primate gave his
opinion first, and, as might have been expected,
accepted the proposition, declaring that he was ready
to sacrifice his wealth and his life, if need were, in the
service of his King. The next to speak, in right of his
office, was Richard, Bishop of London ; but he only
echoed the words of his Metropolitan, and raised no
opposition to the scheme proposed. At last came the
turn of St. Hugh. He recollected himself for a few
moments, and then spoke his mind as follows : u You,
my noble lords, who compose this assembly, know very
well that I am a stranger in this land, and that I was
dragged from the retirement of a cloister, to bear the
burden of the episcopate. But having had committed
to me, in spite of my inexperience, the care of the
Church of my dear Lady, Mary the Mother of God, I
have made it my duty to study closely the customs and
prerogatives, as well as the burthens and responsibili-
ties, of this Church, and up to the present time, for
nearly thirteen years past, I have been faithful in
observing them, not deviating in anything from the
just precedents left me by my predecessors. I know
that the Bishop of Lincoln is bound to furnish the
King with a certain contingent of armed men, but these
armed men are to be employed within the kingdom
itself, and not for service beyond the seas. What I
am now asked to do, is contrary to the ancient immu-

1 The author of our French Life credits Hubert with the rather astound-
ing proposition that each bishop and baron should furnish a force of three
hundred knights. As the knights were to be paid three shillings a day, the
burden of maintaining three hundred knights in all was sufficiently grievous.
-[ED.]

360 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

nities of the see of Lincoln, and rather than thus to
fetter and enslave my Church, I am resolved to return
to my own country, and to end my days in the desert
solitude from whence I came here."

The Primate was furious at this answer, but he
hoped at least that no other prelate would dare to
follow the Bishop of Lincoln's example, and so, sup-
pressing his indignation with difficulty, he turned, with
quivering lips (tremcntilms pva indignatione labiis) to ask
the opinion of the Bishop of Salisbury. " My reply,"
said the latter prelate, " is in entire agreement with
that of my lord the Bishop of Lincoln. I could not
speak or act otherwise without grave prejudice to the
interests of my Church."

Then the Archbishop could no longer contain his
anger. He addressed himself to Hugh, and after
upbraiding him in the bitterest terms for his opposition
to the scheme suggested, he declared that the council
was at an end, and that the bishops and barons might
return to their homes.

A messenger, or rather three separate messengers,
were despatched to the King, denouncing St. Hugh as
the cause of the failure of the Oxford assembly.
Richard, as might have been expected, was greatly
enraged, and straightway ordered the confiscation of all
the property of the Bishop of Lincoln, as well as of
that of the Bishop of Salisbury. In the case of the
latter prelate the decree was at once carried into effect.
He was despoiled of his wealth, made the victim of
a relentless persecution, and it was only after a long
interval, on the payment of an enormous sum of money,
that he succeeded in making his peace with the King. 1

The mandates directed by the King against the
holy Bishop of Lincoln, were quite as urgent, but in

1 He left England for Normandy in the month of February, 1198, and
did not return until the following June. (Annal. Wint. 303.)

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 361

his case there was a stay of execution, resulting from
the fact that no one dared to carry them out. The
royal officials had a salutary dread of the effects
popularly believed to follow the Saint's sentence of
excommunication. They preferred to disobey the King,
rather than run the risk of a sudden and terrible death.
From the month of December, 1197, until the September
of the following year, the officers of the Crown received
frequent orders to proceed immediately with the con-
fiscation of St. Hugh's possessions, but they always
contrived to find excuses for delay, at the same time
acquainting the Bishop with their embarrassment, and
imploring him to go to the King in person in Normandy,
in order to put an end to the prosecution directed
against him.

St. Hugh at. length yielded to their wishes, and set
out for the famous Chateau Gaillard at Andely, where
Richard then was quartered. On his arrival at Rouen,
he was met by two of the principal nobles of the Court :
William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who was after-
wards Regent during the minority of King Henry III.,
and whose daughter married the brother of that King; 1
and William, Earl of Albermarle. They tried to
persuade the Bishop of Lincoln that it would be un-
wise to expose himself to the King's anger, and begged
him to accept of their services as mediators between
him and his Sovereign. They reminded him how ill the
Bishop of Salisbury had fared, and expressed their
alarm lest he also should be made the victim of the
King's resentment. But St. Hugh refused the help
they proffered. " I thank you," he said, " from my
heart for your devotion, but I will tell you why I
cannot accept it. You are necessary to the King in

1 This incident does not seem to be referred to in the very full and
interesting Histoire de Guillaume le Marshal, now being edited by M. Paul
Meyer for the Soci^te" de 1' Histoire de France. [ED.]

362 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

his present trials and anxieties, for which I feel a
true sympathy. To you, more than to any one else, he
is hound by ties of gratitude ; and for that very reason,
I do not wish you to plead my cause with him. In
his present state of mind, he will either refuse to listen
to you, and be angry with you also, so that you will
feel less zeal in his service ; or he will listen to you,
as a very great favour, and so consider himself absolved
from any further obligation of gratitude. Therefore,
you must content yourselves with telling him, from me,
that I have come to Normandy expressly to see him ;
and hope that he will accord me an interview."

The two noblemen admired this reply, for they were
capable of appreciating the spirit in which their offer
had been met. They pressed the matter no further,
but returned to the King and told him the result of
their interview. Richard himself seems to have been
impressed by the account which they gave him and,
respecting Hugh as a foeman worthy of his steel, sent
word to the Bishop of Lincoln that he would receive
him three days later at his new castle on the rock of
Andely. 1

1 There can be no doubt that this was the famous Chateau Gaillard.
Before this nickname came into general use, Richard's new fortress was
almost invariably described amongst English writers by the phrase used
both in the Magna Vita and by Giraldus, as novum castellum Rupis
de Andeli. It will be found so designated in many documents in the
Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normannia ; besides which the only great rock
near Andely is that on which the Chateau Gaillard is built. It is a puzzle,
however, to think where the chapel can have been which is here referred to.
William Le Breton, Philippis, bk. vii. 1. 739, declares that the chapel of
the castle was built by King John in 1202. There is a crypt, or under-
ground chamber, still in existence, which tradition persists in calling a
chapel, but it measures only thirty feet by sixteen, and besides this, the
chapel alluded to in the Magna Vita was evidently upstairs vox ab editiori
loco emissa. The building of the Chateau Gaillard in a single year is,
perhaps, the most stupendous known example of mediaeval energy. No
wonder Richard was proud of it. " I would take it," said Philip, " though
it were built of iron." "I would defend it," said Richard, "if it were

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 363

St. Hugh obeyed the summons. On the feast of
St. Augustine, August 28th, he arrived at the castle.
He was told that the King was then hearing Mass
in the chapel, and at once proceeded to join him there.
The Bishop's chaplains followed him trembling, but
as they mounted the steps leading to the door, they
were struck by the words of the chant which reached
them from within. The choir were singing the
prose for St. Augustine's feast, and the verse rang out :
Ave, inclyte prasul Chvisti, flos pulcherrime ! " Hail, illus-
trious Pontiff of Christ, flower of spiritual beauty ! "
They took it for an omen. It seemed to be their own
holy Bishop who was greeted with this outburst of
encouragement and hope.

Still more were they confirmed in this consoling
thought when, as they entered the chapel, the choir
continued : O beate, O sancte Augustine, juva catervam hanc
" O blessed, O holy Augustine, take this troop under
your protection." l Doubtless, from his throne in

made of butter." And in the meantime the expenditure of money was
enormous. Every time that the King looked round upon the prodigious
mass of masonry with which he had girdled the great rock, his indignation
must have blazed out afresh against the man who had successfully resisted
his attempt to wring the sorely-needed supplies from his people in England.
(Cf. Deville, Histoire du Chateau Gaillard, p. 41 ; CEuvres de Rigord et de
G. le Breton, Edit. Delaborde, vol. i. p. 207 ; Viollet le Due, Dictionnaire
d' Architecture, vol. iii. pp 82, seq.) [ED.]

1 These lines are taken from the sequence, Adest nobis dies alma et
magno gaudio plena, which is assigned for the Common of Confessors, in
the Missals of Sarum and Rouen. It is curious, however, that the reading
followed in the chapel at Andely agrees with that of none of the printed
Missals. All the Sarum give O beate, O sancte N., laus tibi et gloria, or
O beate, O sancte N., pro nobis supplied. In the Rouen Missal (1499)
we find the reading salva catervam hanc instead of juva catervam hanc.
On the other hand, in the Westminster Missal (Henry Bradshaw Society,
vol. ii. p. 1048) the same sequence is assigned for the Common of a Martyr,
and here the readings are in accord with what we find in the Magna Vita.
Probably the use followed by the clergy in attendance on King Richard

364 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

Heaven, the holy Bishop of Hippo listened to the
prayer, and obtained a new victory for that city of
God of which he wrote so eloquently and which he had
so bravely defended.

At this moment, the chapel presented a striking
spectacle. The King was seated on his throne, near
the door, facing the altar. He was surrounded by a
brilliant group of courtiers ; amongst whom were to be
seen two Archbishops and five Bishops two of them
sitting on the steps of the throne. In all the pomp
and splendour of royal state, Richard awaited the
approach of the man who for nine months had set
his will at defiance. St. Hugh drew near and made
his obeisance. The King glared at him fiercely for a
moment, and then turned away his head without a
word. "My lord King," said the Bishop, "give me
the kiss of peace." 1 Richard made no answer, but

will have been that of Rouen. For the sequence, cf. Kehrein, Lateinische
Sequenzen des Mitielalters, n. 438, where again the sequence Adest nobis
is assigned to the Common of a Martyr. In the same volume will be found
several "proper" sequences for St. Augustine's day, one of which, begin-
ning Hujtis diei gaudia, throws light upon a curious gloss noticed by
Mr. Dimock, Magna Vita, p. 250, note. [Eo.]

1 It would seem that much importance was then attached to this
formal token of amity. In the Life of St. Thomas of Canterbury we
find that the negotiations for a reconciliation between the King and the
Archbishop in 1169 were all but wrecked over the persistent refusal of
Henry II. to concede this mark of courtesy and respect to his former
friend. Henry was willing that his eldest son should give the kiss to the
Archbishop in his place, but refused so positively to do so himself, that it
was supposed he must have taken a solemn oath that he would never
receive St. Thomas in osculu pads. Accordingly we have a letter to Henry
from Pope Alexander imploring and exhorting him in the most impressive
terms not to withhold this courtesy from the Archbishop, and intimating
at the same time that he (the Pope) absolves him from his oath in case
any such should have been taken by him. (Materials for the History of
Thomas liecket, vol. vii. p. 206.) So it is common in the writers of the
period to find them recording the fact that such and such distinguished
men saluted each other /// osculo pads. It would be useless to multiply
examples. [Eo.]

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 365

kept his face coldly averted. Thereupon St. Hugh
drew still nearer, took hold of the King's mantle, and
shook it, saying : " I have come a long journey to find
you, and I have a right to a salute." " No, you have
not deserved it," said the King. " Yes, indeed, I have
deserved it," said the Bishop, "come now, I insist
upon your giving me the kiss you owe me." And as
he thus spoke, he pulled the King's mantle so violently
that he fairly shook him. Angry as he was, Richard
was not proof against so intrepid ' a greeting. He
smiled at last in spite of himself, and gave to his
conqueror the salute he demanded.

The witnesses of this strange scene could hardly
believe their eyes. The Bishops hastily made room
for the Saint to take a seat in the midst of them ; but
he shook his head, and went straight to the altar,
where he knelt down, with his eyes fixed on the ground,
and his whole soul absorbed by the mysteries of the
Holy Sacrifice.

The King's eyes followed him, and found satisfaction
in watching the humble recollection of his demeanour.
Aided by the holy Bishop's prayers, he felt himself
strengthened in new and happier dispositions. He
would have been ashamed to be overcome by a powerful
earthly rival ; he could not feel any shame at being
vanquished by this humble servant of the King of
kings. It was like Cosur de Lion to wish to make public
manifestation of 'his change of feeling. So when the
Agnus Dei was said, and the celebrant gave the kiss
of peace to one of the Archbishops, whose duty it was
to convey it to the King, Richard, instead of waiting
in his place, descended from his throne and hastened
to the altar-steps. There he received the instrument
of peace from the Archbishop, kissed it reverently, and
then communicated the salute, not by means of the pax-
brede, but by the contact of his own lips to the Bishop

366 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

of Lincoln. 1 It was as much as to say, remarks the
narrator of this incident, that to the holy Bishop were
due those marks of veneration and homage which were
usually paid to the King himself.

When the Mass was ended, St. Hugh sought an
interview with his Sovereign, and gave him in a few
words the explanation of all that had passed at Oxford.
The King had no reply to make except to throw the
blame on the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, he
alleged, had misrepresented the Bishop's motives.
St. Hugh on his side, emphatically repudiated any
unfriendly intent. " Saving the honour of God, Sire," he
said, " and the welfare of mine own soul and thine, I
have never once even in the smallest particular gone
counter to thy wishes." Then Richard offered the
Bishop of Lincoln many presents, and begged him to
take up his abode in the new stronghold of Port-Joie, 2

1 The instrument urn pads, or pax-brede (pax-board), was a little tablet
ornamented with a representation of the Crucifixion, or some other pious
device, which was used to transmit to the congregation the kiss of peace,
taken from the altar, or in the still more primitive usage, from the
consecrated Host Itself. The celebrant kissed the Sacred Host or the
altar, and then pressed his lips to the pax-brede, which was given to those
assisting at the Mass to kiss in turn. It would appear from the account
in the Magna Vita, that the kiss was brought from the celebrant to the
King by means of the pax-brede, but that the King, as a mark of special
respect to St. Hugh, dispensed with the pax-brede and kissed him on the
cheek. I am not quite sure, however, whether the words, sigiuim fads,
refer to the material instrumentum, or are only the equivalent of some
such phrase as " the symbol of peace." From the version of the incident
given by Giraldus (vii. p. 104), who entirely agrees \vith the .]/<///,/ Vita,
we learn that the celebrant kissed, not the altar, but the Body of Christ.
[ED.]

3 Mr. Dimock, and other writers who have copied him, are mistaken in
supposing that Hugh was lodged at the Chateau Gaillard. The interview
with King Richard seems to have taken place there, as has been already
remarked, but the Magna Vita, p. 254. makes it clear that the King
invited him to take up his quarters in another fortified place, which was
quite distinct "a rege, hospitandi gratia, in castellum quod vocitabat
I'ortum Gaudii, quod ipse recenter construxerat in quadam insula non

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 367

which he had just finished building on an island in
the Seine, and of which he was very proud. He also
asked St. Hugh to return the next day, to receive fresh
assurances of his favour. The good Bishop consented,
but was resolved to lose nothing of the present
favourable opportunity which the softening of the
King's mood seemed to have thrown in his way. Boldly
taking Richard by the hand, he led him behind the altar,
and there making him sit down beside him, he began to
speak to him as a real spiritual father. " My Lord
King," he said, " you belong to my diocese, 1 and I feel
that I am responsible for your soul to God, Who has
purchased it by His Blood. I want you to make
known to me then, what is really the state of your
conscience, that, as your pastor, I may be able, with the
aid of God's grace, to help you by my counsels. You
may remember that a year has already passed, since I
last spoke to you on this subject."

The King probably had not forgotten the previous
remonstrances of the holy Bishop, and was rather afraid
of their repetition. He simply replied that his conscience
was in a fairly good state, except that he felt a bitter
hatred against the enemies who were endeavouring to
compass his ruin. St. Hugh was not at all satisfied
with this answer, and urged the King to a more
thorough examination of his faults. " Your enemies,"
he said, " will easily be overcome, if you yourself are
at peace with the King of kings. You have only one

procul sita, destinatur." The writer was with St. Hugh during all these
incidents, and cannot have been mistaken in saying that the place was
called Port-joie, and was on an island. In the Rotuli Scaccarii Normannice,
vol. ii. pp. xxxviii. xlii. , &c. , published by Stapleton, we may learn all
about Port-joie, and we find that it was primarily intended as a royal
residence, and was connected with the mainland by a revolving bridge,
which last was only completed in 1198. [Eo.]

1 Richard I. was born at Oxford, which was then in the diocese of
Lincoln, in the year 1157.

3 68 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

foe to fear, and that is sin ; the offences you commit
against God, and the injuries you do to your neighbour."
Then the Saint went on fearlessly to rebuke him for his
infidelity to his wife, and for his persecution of the
Church in the matter of canonical elections and
nominations. " I am told," he said, " that you have
no scruple in committing the cure of souls to men whose
only merit is that they offer you rich gifts, or are your
personal acquaintances. This is a grave crime, and as
long as you continue to do such things, assuredly God
will never be your friend." He continued with these
fatherly admonitions, until he had clearly set before his
Sovereign the duties of his state of life, just as he might
have instructed any ordinary penitent in confession.
Richard listened to him with respect, excused himself
on some points, confessed his failings in others, and
recommended himself to the prayers of the Bishop, who
at length allowed him to retire, after giving him his
episcopal blessing.

While the Bishop, happy in the consciousness that
he had spent the morning so profitably, withdrew to the
apartments assigned for his use, 1 the King returned to
his courtiers, and began loudly to sing the praises of
his devoted admonitor. " Truly," he said, " if all the
prelates of the Church were like him, there is not a
prince or a King in Christendom who would dare to
raise his head in the presence of a Bishop." Coming
from such a man as Cceur de Lion, the remark speaks
volumes. No wonder that St. Hugh was known in
after-ages as "the Hammer of Kings."

The day might naturally have concluded with this
memorable eulogy. But some of the courtiers would
have it otherwise. They advised the King to take

1 We are told that Richard, knowing that St. Hugh never eat meat,
had ordered a remarkably fine pike to be prepared for his dinner. (Girald,
Vita S. Hugonis, i. eh. viii. )

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 369

advantage of this reconciliation, and to persuade
St. Hugh to be the bearer of letters to the barons
(magnatibus] of England, asking them to vote another
subsidy. They said that such an unexceptionable
messenger would ensure the success of his appeal, and
that the Bishop would himself only be too glad of an
opportunity to render a little service to his Sovereign.

" But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them
that have wings." When the new project was
communicated to St. Hugh, he positively refused to
have anything to do with it. It was of no use for his
own clergy to unite with the courtiers in begging him
to gratify the King, in a matter which would cost him
so little. "No," he said, "God forbid that I should
be guilty of any such weakness. Not only should I
have to do violence to my own inclination, but I should
disgrace the office which I bear. A Bishop is not a
courier to carry the King's messages, and I will not
raise a ringer to co-operate in extortions of this kind.
Do you not know, that when a King puts out one hand
for alms, he holds a drawn sword behind his back with
the other ? Such monarchs speak fair at first and
make many promises, but in the end they wring from
their people by harsh constraint, not what the subject
was willing to give, but what the Sovereign thinks fit
to demand. And moreover that which in the beginning
was offered freely and spontaneously, is soon regarded
as a right and to be extorted by force. No, I will
never meddle with such things. I might perhaps gain
the favour of my King, but I should most certainly
incur the anger of the all-powerful God."

So the courtiers gained nothing by this insidious
suggestion. Hugh begged them to make the King
understand that it was useless to insist ; Richard
yielded at once, and for fear of again being drawn into
some false step, he sent word to the Bishop that he
Y

370 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

was welcome in God's name to go back to his diocese,
without any further delay, so that he need not even
come to see him again on the morrow, as had been
previously arranged. For this deliverance Hugh said
a hearty Te Deum, and he joyfully set out at once on
his return journey.

He had not yet arrived in England, when Richard
gained an important victory over Philip Augustus at
the Battle of Gisors, fought on the 28th of September.
The English King sent news of his success to all his
friends, amongst whom the Bishop of Lincoln was not
forgotten. In the letter he wrote to St. Hugh on this
occasion, he again recommended himself to the prayers
of the Saint, to the efficacy of which many of his barons
attributed the victory. Richard may perhaps have
remembered that it was after the pilgrimage of his
father to Canterbury and his reconciliation at the tomb
of the martyred Archbishop that the news reached him
of the triumph of his arms over the King of Scotland.
For the time being, at any rate, the King was on the
best of terms with St. Hugh, and it would have been
well if his fickle and violent character had allowed him
to remain faithful to the impressions of that season of
grace.

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER VII.

The incident narrated in the foregoing chapter has
engaged the attention of more than one of our most
distinguished historians, and they seem agreed in rating
very highly the constitutional importance of St. Hugh's
opposition to the royal demands. " This event," says
Bishop Stubbs, "is a landmark of constitutional history ;
for the second time a constitutional opposition to a
royal demand for money is made, and made success-
fully ; though it would perhaps be too great an antici-
pation of modern usages to suppose that the resignation

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 371

of the Minister [Archbishop Hubert] a few months
later was caused by the defeat." 1 And again the same
historian declares: "Whatever were the grounds of
the opposition of St. Hugh, ecclesiastical or constitu-
tional, ... it is the first clear case of the refusal of a
money grant demanded directly by the Crown, and a
most valuable precedent for future times." 2 Not less
emphatic are the words of Professor Freeman. " In a
great Council held at Oxford . . . the Saint of Lincoln,
grown into an Englishman on English ground, spoke
up for the laws and rights of Englishmen, as Anselm
had done before him, and as Simon did after him.
When Hubert, in the King's name, demanded English
money to pay a military force for the King's foreign
wars, he was met by the answer that the Church
of Lincoln and its pastor were bound to do
faithful service to their lord the King within his
realm, but that no men or money were they bound to
contribute for undertakings beyond the sea. . . . The
opposition was successful, one of the great principles
of English Parliamentary right was established by the
holy man who, in his own words, had been brought
from the simple life of a hermit, to exercise the rule of
a bishop, and who had made it his duty in his new
post to make himself master of all the laws and customs
by which in his new office he would be bound." 3 From
these conclusions, Mr. J. H. Round, in an article which
appeared in the English Historical Review for 1892, after-
wards reprinted in Feudal England, seems rather inclined

1 Constitutional History, vol. i. p. 572. The first case of opposition to
the King's will in the matter of taxation, which Bishop Stubbs here refers
to, was the resistance made by St. Thomas Becket in 1163 to the payment
of Danegeld. As " Danegeld appears for the last time under that name in
the accounts of this year . . . the opposition would seem to have been
formally at least successful." (Ibid. 523.)

2 Stubbs, Preface to Hoveden, vol. iv. p. xci.

3 Norman Conquest, v. p. 695.

372 THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP.

to dissent. At least he declares that the constitutional
importance of the incident has been greatly exagge-
rated. But even if we suppose with Mr. Round that
St. Hugh took the narrowest ground and acted solely
on behalf of ecclesiastical privilege, 1 it does not seem to
me that the lesson taught by his example, and by the
result, that as a matter of fact the King's proposals hail
to be abandoned in consequence of the opposition
which he raised, is any the less momentous in its
bearing on our constitutional history. In any case, the
answer returned by St. Hugh to the courtiers who
pressed him to countenance the raising of a new subsidy
or benevolence after his reconciliation with the King,
makes it manifest that his opposition to the royal
demands was by no means narrow and selfish, and that
he had a sincere sympathy with the grievances of the
people of England at large.

Of much more value, as it seems to me, is
Mr. Round's interesting paper in the same volume, on
Richard I.'s change of seal. By determining the date
of the introduction of the new royal seal, which must
have occurred in the spring months of i i(j<S,- Mr. Round
has leant very great probability to the suggestion that
in the extreme financial straits to which St. Hugh's
opposition at Oxford reduced him, the King had
recourse to the desperate device of causing a new seal
to be made, announcing his intention to repudiate all
charters which had not been confirmed by it. It is
true that " only a minority of the charters were ever

1 I fully admit the value of Mr Round's citations from the Chronicle of
Jocelyn de Brakelond as throwing light upon the scheme proposed in the
Oxford assembly of December, 1197. The fact that Abbot Samson should
have paid 36 marks for the support of his four knights for forty da\s,
is in singular agreement \\ith the three shillings a day mentioned \>\
Hoveden as demanded by the King^ for their maintenance. {I'cudal
En-land, pp. 532, 533. )

- In'tuccn April ist and May 22nd. {Feudal England, p. 545.)

THE KING IS CONQUERED BY THE BISHOP. 373

confirmed under the second seal," but Coggeshall tells
us that the sum raised by this expedient was enormous, 1
and it was probably only the King's death nine months
afterwards which put a timely end to the exaction. We
may perhaps hope that Archbishop Hubert's resignation
of the justiciarship may have been brought about by
his reluctance to take any active share in a proceeding
which even his none too scrupulous conscience must
have condemned as iniquitous. [Eo.]

1 " Accessit autem ad totius mail cumulum, juxta vitas ejus (Richardi)
terminum prioris sigilli sui renovatio quo exiit edictum per totum ejus
regnum, ut omnes cartae, confirmationes, &c. , quae prioris sigilli impres-
sione roboraverat irrita forent nee alicujus libertatis vigorem obtinerent nisi
posteriori sigillo roborarentur. In quibus renovandis et iterum com-
parandis innumerabilis pecunia congesta est." (Chronicon, R. Coggeshall,
p. 93. ) It is curious that amongst the comparatively few extant charters
renewed under Richard's second seal in 1198, there is a confirmation to the
Abbot and monks of St. Albans of the privileges previously granted to
them, prohibiting from entering on their lands any minister steward,
butler, chamberlain, " dispensator," porter, or provost against the will
and consent of themselves or their successors. The charter of which this
is the confirmation was first granted by Richard at Garcinton, on Sept. 17,
1190, when it was witnessed by Archbishop Baldwin, St. Hugh of Lincoln,
and William Marshall. (Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, vol. i. A. 1056).

CHAPTER VIII.
POPE INNOCENT III.

THE interview between Richard and St. Hugh at
the Rock of Andely is in some sense typical of
the century which was to follow. It was to be an age
when the rights of the Church would be recognized as
they had never been recognized before, and when a
succession of Popes would occupy the Chair of St. Peter,
who would treat with the proudest monarchs of
Christendom on a footing of more than equality. The
greatest of these was the pontiff whose accession
inaugurated the new era, even before the twelfth
century had quite drawn to a close. Pope Inno-
cent III., who was elected on January 8, 1198, stands
pre-eminent for vigour and ability amongst all the
rulers of his time. Both by the verdict of his contem-
poraries, and in the judgment of history, he did more
to make the Papacy respected than any pontiff since
the time of Hildebrand, and for centuries afterwards.
In every quarter of the Christian world, and in every
department of Church government, his influence was
felt, and the impression which he produced was so
profound that no lapse of time has been able to
efface it.

In the early years of his pontificate, the design
which Innocent had most deeply at heart was the
restoration of harmony among the princes of Western
Europe. Without peace in the West, the reconquest

POPE INNOCENT III. 375

of the East was impossible. It was not long, there-
fore, before the internal concerns of England and
France engaged the attention of a Pope who had no
scruple in saying: "Princes rule over provinces, and
Kings over kingdoms ; but Peter rules over all, by
reason of the extent and fulness of his power ; for he
is the Vicar of Him to whom belongs the whole earth
and all those who inhabit it." 1

In the very first months of his pontificate, Inno-
cent III. addressed an important letter to the King of
France ; and immediately afterwards, another to the
King ol England. To the latter he sent four rings of
gold, 2 set with precious stones, and he expounded their
signification in the following terms: "These rings are
round, and are thus a symbol of eternity, which has
neither beginning nor end. Let their shape remind
your Royal Wisdom, to rise above earthly things to
the contemplation of the things of Heaven, and from
that which is transitory to that which is immutable and
everlasting. Again, the rings are four in number. Four
is a square number, and is significant of that even
balance of the soul which is not cast down by adversity,
nor too much elated by prosperity, being stable in its
possession of the four cardinal virtues prudence,
justice, fortitude, and temperance. The first ring I
would have you take as the symbol of justice, that you
may keep that virtue ever before your eyes in your
dealings with your subjects. The second should stand
for fortitude, which you will need to support you in
time of trial. The third represents prudence, which
must be your guide in all difficulties. The fourth

1 History of Innocent III. By Hurter. French Translation, vol. i.

P- 2 75-

2 One of these rings seems to have been given by Richard to Samson,
Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, who had quarrelled with the King and
afterwards had been reconciled with him, something as St, Hugh had been.
(See Jocelyn de Brakelond's Chronicle, ) [ED, ]

POPE INNOCENT HI

temperance, your constant monitor in prosperity." 1
And from this beginning Pope Innocent goes on to
explain the mystical meaning of the gold of which the
rings were made, and of the various precious stones
with which they were set. But it is hardly necessary
to quote his epistle further. It is chiefly interesting as
an illustration of the curious allegorical interpretations
which then found favour with men of letters; and
Richard, who himself dabbled not unsuccessfully in
verse-making, will no doubt have been duly apprecia-
tive of the pontiff's ingenuity.

But the Pope had something more serious in mind
than to flatter Richard's vanity or to gratify his taste
for literary conceits. In other letters Innocent III.
used every argument to persuade the Kings of England
and France to give up their private quarrels, and cease
warring upon each other, in order to make common
cause against the infidels. He even threatened to
lay an interdict upon the kingdom of that monarch
who should refuse to be reconciled with his brother
Sovereign. In this way he succeeded at last in inducing
both Kings to accept the mediation of his Legate, Peter
of Capua, 2 with the result that a truce was signed
between them for five years.

During these negotiations the Pope did not lose
sight of any matter of importance which regarded the
interests of God and His Church. At one time he
was engaged in warmly defending the cause of the
unhappy Ingelburga, the divorced Queen of Philip
Augustus ; at another he protested in the strongest
terms against the King of England's violation of the
ecclesiastical canons, requiring prompt reparation for

1 Innocent III. Epistolce, bk. i. p. 206 ; Hurter, loc. cit. p. 117.

2 The details of this negotiation are given with considerable fulness in
the metrical Histoire de Guillaume Le Marie ha I, Kd. Paul Meyer, vol. ii.
pp. 44, seq. See also/?/. de I'Ecole des Ch.n-tc*, NT. ii. vol. i. p. 22, seq. [Eo.]

POPE INNOCENT III. 377

the encroachments of which he complained ; at another
time again he turned a watchful eye upon the internal
dissensions of bishops and religious bodies, intervening
with happy results where he detected abuses, and
showing a singular discernment in the choice of his
representatives.

Among the various ecclesiastical disputes going on
at that time in England, the only one with which we
are immediately concerned is the long-standing quarrel
between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the monks
of his Cathedral Chapter. The settlement of this
important suit had been committed by the Pope to the
care of the Bishop of Lincoln, and as Pope Innocent
himself took a personal interest in the proceedings, the
appointment is probably to be regarded as a mark of
his special confidence in St. Hugh.

Hubert Walter, elected Archbishop in 1193, un-
deterred by the failure of his predecessor Baldwin,
and by the singular fulfilment of our Saint's forebodings
already referred to in an earlier chapter, had revived
the scheme of a memorial church to SS. Stephen and
Thomas, which was so bitterly resented by the Christ
Church monks. The edifice erected by Baldwin at
Hackington near Canterbury had been razed to the
ground by order of the Holy See. But another similar
church was constructed by Hubert in 1198 at Lambeth,
on the south side of the Thames. Begun under the
unassuming name of chapel this building bid fair to
grow into a new Cathedral, a rival of the ancient
Minster of Canterbury. It was a collegiate church,
served by secular canons, for whom a permanent
residence was provided within the precincts of the
sacred enclosure.

The Canterbury monks were persuaded, and not
without reason, that this new church was an encroach-
ment upon their immemorial rights, and seriously

378 POPE INNOCENT III.

threatened the privilege which they claimed of electing
the Archbishop. They, therefore, appealed to Pope
Innocent III., who showed himself anxious to bring
this long-standing grievance to a settlement. 1

Accordingly, on April 24th, 1198, a Papal rescript
was issued commanding Hubert to abandon his plan,
to destroy the buildings he had erected, and to restore
to the monks all the revenues of which they had been
unjustly deprived. In the case of his resisting the
execution of the mandate, his suffragans were ordered
to refuse him obedience. It happened that shortly
after these letters reached England the Bishops
assembled at Canterbury for the consecration of the
new Bishop of Coventry. They considered it right
to lay before the Pope certain representations in favour
of the metropolitan, and united in sending a petition
asking for stay of judgment until the case had been
more fully investigated.

Certainly St. Hugh was not prejudiced in favour of
the Primate, but he did not refuse his signature to the
letter by which this petition was conveyed. It is
possible that in the profoundly respectful tone of its
opening and concluding sentences we may trace the
hand of St. Hugh himself. 2

" To our Reverend Father and Lord Innocent,
Supreme Pontiff, the suffragans of the church of
Canterbury send greeting.

" We return thanks to the Giver of all good gifts

1 The facts of this complicated dispute which are very imperfectly
summarized above are given in detail in Bishop Stubbs' Preface to Epistola
Ciintniirit'nses (Rolls Series). I should be far, however, from endorsing
the many reflections unfriendly to Papal jurisdiction with which Bishop
Stubbs seasons his narrative. [En.]

!! St. Hugh seems to have been almost as inveterate a punster as Pope
Gregory the Great, and the play upon the name of Innocent is quite in his
style. [ED.]

POPE INNOCENT III. 379

who in founding His Church upon Peter foretold that
his brethren were to be confirmed in Peter, and in
his successors through him. Hence while we learnt
with distress of the decease of Celestine III. of happy
memory, the news of your election which followed upon
it has dispelled the cloud of our sadness and brought
back the longed-for sunshine. God has not left us
orphans, He who has raised up sons in the place of
their fathers, and Nazareans 1 in the room of the Saints.
We rejoice in His goodness that from your earliest
years He has prepared you and endowed you for this
sublime dignity (ad tantce mysterium dignitatis), in such
a way that, after God the welfare of the Church rests
entirely upon you, and that those of her members who
have grown sickly and diseased may under this Innocent
whom Heaven has bestowed upon them be restored to
their former health, and become innocent of harm."

The Bishops then put forward four principal reasons
which have led them to believe that His Holiness in
issuing his mandate had not fully been put in posses-
sion of the facts of the case, many circumstances
having been withheld from his knowledge by the envoys
of the monks. Then after insisting upon the willingness
of the Archbishop of Canterbury to accept the Pope's
decision whatever it may be, and after dwelling on
the danger that the dispute may widen the breach
which is already perceptible between the Crown and
the clergy (inter regnum et sacerdotium) in England, the
Bishops conclude with the following profession of their
allegiance :

" It is for you then, most dear Father in Christ, to
acquaint yourself with the true circumstances of the
case, and then to decide as it shall seem to you expe-
dient. Be assured that whatever you may determine
l Cf. Amos ii. 11,

380 roPE INNOCENT III.

will be carried out by the Lord Archbishop and by
ourselves, with loyal and devoted affection. And if
your Holiness should think our testimony for any
reason unconvincing, may it please you to commit
to any others whom you may select the fuller investi-
gation of the truth, and upon their report to pronounce
and determine what your Sublimity shall know to be
the will of the Most High." 1

The King himself wrote to the Pope to much the
same effect, and he was supported by the Cistercian
Abbots in England, who all spoke in praise of Arch-
bishop Hubert. Innocent III. gave his consent to a
new investigation of both sides of the question, but
these further inquiries resulted none the less in a con-
firmation of the former sentence. In communicating
this decision to the Archbishop, he exhorted him to
submission in these kind and paternal words :

" Let it not distress you, dear brother, if our con-
science compels us to act as we have done. God is our
witness that we have been swayed by no motive of
passion, but we have been guided simply by the duty
which weighs upon us, despite our insufficiency, to
administer justice in such a way as to respect the
rights of all. We bear to your Fraternity a sincere
affection, we look upon you as an honourable member
of the Episcopate, and as a firm pillar of the house of
the Lord, but we cannot give a verdict in your favour
without grievously offending the God who created us."~

A few days afterwards, St. Hugh received a letter
from the Pope, ordering him to see that the monks of
Canterbury were reinstated in all the possessions of
which they had been unjustly deprived; the Bishop
of Ely and the Abbot of St. Edmund's being named as
Hugh's assessors in these functions. There were many

1 For the text of this letter see Epistola Cant uar tenses, Stubbs, p. 422.
- Ibid. p. 464.

POPE INNOCENT III. 381

serious obstacles to this complete restitution ; and the
Pope was not blind to the difficulties which attended
it. Accordingly, on the following day, December i2th,
1198, he addressed a letter to the King of England,
strongly urging him to make no opposition to the
execution of the Apostolic mandate. Presumably, the
King paid but little attention to this request, for a
month later, January n, 1199, we find Innocent writing
a second time to complain of fresh aggression upon the
immunities of the monks of Canterbury, who had again
been deprived of their estates, on refusing to submit to
a forced enrolment of the treasures of their Cathedral.

On this occasion the Pope spoke with so much
firmness and decision that it was impossible to carry
resistance any further. Archbishop Hubert submitted,
and pulled down the church at Lambeth at his own
expense. But he did not give the monks all they had
expected, and far from being completely reconciled to
them, he still clung to the scheme to which they so
much objected, propounding it, however, in another
form. Then Innocent III. addressed another letter to
St. Hugh, and ordered him to try to bring the matter
to a final settlement.

Here is the Apostolic Missive, which is dated
May 1 8th, 1 199. It illustrates indirectly the importance
of the dispute and the confidence reposed in St. Hugh.

" To the Bishops of Lincoln and Ely and the Abbot
of St. Edmunds.

11 Between our venerable brother the Archbishop and
his predecessors on the one hand, and our beloved sons
the Priors and monks of Canterbury on the other, a
grievous dispute has long since arisen in respect of
certain chapels which the said Archbishops have
persisted in erecting to the prejudice, as it is main-
tained, of the other party, and in this matter both our

382 POPE INNOCENT III.

predecessors and ourselves have been repeatedly
forced to issue Apostolic Letters. But now that in
virtue of a previous mandate of ours, things have
advanced so far towards a settlement, that the chapel at
Lambeth has been entirely demolished and destroyed,
the Archbishop before mentioned, wishing to carry out
the praiseworthy intention of his predecessors, proposes
with our special license to found anew a chapel in
honour of the glorious martyrs Stephen and Thomas,
in which he may set up a college of canons endowed
with prebends. This he assures us by his envoys and
proctors, despite all the reclamations of the other
party, is a right which belongs to him by the common
law. He urges that the interests of the adverse party
can be secured from any encroachment by fit and
adequate pledges, 1 and he declares that this present
design of his ought not to be in any way prejudiced by
the sentence of demolition pronounced against the said
Lambeth chapel, seeing that the work in question was
condemned mainly on this ground that it was carried
out after a public denunciation 2 of the proposed
undertaking, after our predecessors had forbidden it,
and pending an appeal which was entered to the
Apostolic See. But on behalf of the monks it was
contended on the opposite side, that seeing that our

1 The pledges proposed by Hubert certainly look very satisfactory, at
least on paper. Each canon of his new chapel was to swear that he would
never attempt to assert for the College any voice in the election of the
Archbishop, and that he would not connive at the translation of St. Thomas's
remains to any other church, that he would not consent to the chrism being
consecrated elsewhere than at Canterbury, and that he would never seek,
or suffer another, to be released from this oath. The oath was to be taken
at Canterbury, by each canon immediately after his installation. (Stubbs,
op. cit. p. 531 ; Preface, p. xcv.) [ED.]

' Post nunciationem novi oferis. (Stubbs, p. 491.) The explanation of
this technical phrase nunciatio may best be gathered from the Processus
printed by Bishop Stubbs in the same volume, p. 525. The references
to the Digest show this to have been a plea in civil law. [Eo.]

POPE INNOCENT III. 383

mandate to the Archbishop and to you concerning the
restitution of fees, churches and other things, had not
yet been carried into effect, and that the scandal con-
nected with the affair had never properly been repaired,
and that it was as yet by no means assured that no
damage would result to the monks from the proposed
scheme, the same cause for reluctance still existing, the
Archbishop's petition ought not to be entertained.
As these therefore and similar pleadings have been put
before us in our audiences, we wishing with pastoral
solicitude to consult the interest of both parties, and
acting upon the advice of our brethren, have decided to
commit the said cause to you, upon the understanding
that before all else you labour to induce the parties to
come to an agreement among themselves. And if per-
chance it should not please God to allow you to accom-
plish this, then we direct that, after complete restoration
has been made to the monks of all that they have been
deprived of upon pretexts connected with this cause,
you investigate the truth concerning the matters of
which we have spoken, excluding all appeals, and if the
consent of the parties can be obtained that you proceed
to pass a definitive sentence, taking measures that your
judgment should be observed by both sides without
further demur. Otherwise, you will faithfully set down
in writing the proceedings in the case, and transmit
them to us under seal, assigning a suitable day to the
parties when they must appear in our presence to
receive sentence, and if either of them neglect so to
appear, we, notwithstanding, will proceed in the cause
as far as we justly may. Furthermore we will and
ordain that going in person to the place itself, you
make inquiry into the condition of the Church of
Canterbury both internal and external, allowing no
appeal, and that you report fully to us the true state
of the case and all that you may discover, so that upon

384 POPE INNOCENT III.

the information you supply, we may take such measures
as seem needful. And this our decree shall be barred
by no Apostolic Letters, except such as rnay be granted
by the consent of both parties. And if you are unable
to be all three present at these proceedings, let them
be carried out by two of you at the least.

" Given at the Lateran the i4th day before the
Kalends of June, in the second year of our Pontificate."

We will explain later on why it was that St. Hugh
had not been able to execute the previous Papal
mandate, and how he succeeded at last, only a few
days before his death, in arranging everything accord-
ing to the wishes of the Pope.

If it is distressing to witness a quarrel of this kind
carried on between an Archbishop and his monks, there
is also consolation to be found in the vigilance and
determination displayed by the Head of the Church.
There is surely something to edify in such words as the
following, written by Innocent in one of his letters to
the monks he was befriending : " Notwithstanding our
unworthiness, we hold the place of Him who, in the
language of the Prophet, delivers the poor from
oppression, and helps when there is none else to help.
Full of paternal compassion for your troubles, we make
no account of the power which has declared against
you, and to put an end to the oppression under which
you groan, we have unsheathed the sword of Peter, and
intend that justice shall be done. The only reward we
ask of you, is that you will offer your prayers and your
tears for us to the all-merciful Judge, that our sins may
be remitted. Lift up to Him your pure hands, that we
may exercise our Apostolic functions to the praise and
glory of His Name, to the advantage of the Church,
and to the profit and salvation of our own soul." 1

1 Mi-ne, loc. cit. 417.

POPE INNOCENT III. 385

The monks of Canterbury were not the only
Religious who derived benefit from the esteem which
Innocent III. had for their holy state. Without
speaking of the two great Orders of St. Francis and
St. Dominic, which arose during his Pontificate, and
were encouraged and blessed by him, without specifying
the innumerable monasteries which benefited by his
protection, it may be noted that the Carthusians in
particular always found in him a signal benefactor.
Not content with confirming the privileges granted by
his predecessors, he added new ones for the defence of
Carthusian monasteries whose peace was threatened,
and he himself, with many marks of special affection,
founded the Chartreuse of Trisulti, 1 near Alatri, in
the Roman Campagna. It is not surprising then that
so warm a friend of the Order should have appreciated
at their true worth the courage and sincerity of our
Carthusian Bishop of Lincoln. 2

1 It had previously been a Benedictine abbey, and was founded by
Saint Domenico di Foligno, but in 1208 Innocent III. gave it to the
Carthusians. (See Moroni, Dizionario Storico-Ecclesiastico,vo\.^o,p.j^.}

2 Dom le Couteulx, Annal. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 362. There are
also three other letters from this Pope to St. Hugh : one on the nullity of a
marriage ; one on a benefice being unjustly taken from an ecclesiastic ; and
a third, on an involuntary homicide. (See Migne, loc. cit. col. 360,
850, 898.)

CHAPTER IX.

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

TOWARDS the close of the year 1198, and about the time
that he was commissioned to act as delegate in the
affair of the Christ Church monks, Hugh again became
involved in a struggle with the King, which ended in a
royal decree confiscating all his property. We can
scarcely understand how Richard could so soon have
forgotten the salutary impressions he had received
during his last interview with the Saint ; and it was not
very honourable on his part to accept a reconciliation
when in the presence of the holy Bishop, only to renew
the attack the moment his back was turned, and he
once more had his monitor at a disadvantage. Left to
himself, the King would probably have been incapable
of such an act of treachery, but he had not sufficient
moral courage to say no to his advisers when they
talked of schemes for raising supplies. Richard would
have done anything for money just then, so he eagerly
swallowed the bait held out to him in this new proposal,
the more so that it did not seem to be aimed directly
at the Bishop, but only at the canons of his Cathedral
chapter.

Just at this period, King Richard was in sore need
of a certain number of able ecclesiastics who could
suitably represent his interests in foreign Courts. There
was Rome, then the centre of European diplomacy ;
there was Germany, where his nephew Otho, who had

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 387

just been elected Emperor, was soliciting the favour of
being crowned by Innocent III.; there was Spain, where
Richard was urging his claim to the dowry which had
been promised him with his wife Berengaria of Navarre.
Then there was always France, and other European
kingdoms besides, with which England was bound to
keep up some sort of relations. Of course these various
embassies and negotiations entailed many expenses,
and it was urged upon the King, that in selecting his
ambassadors, he should choose men who had good
incomes of their own, and would be able to defray from
their own pocket the outlay which was necessary. In
particular the canons of Lincoln were suggested to him
as amongst the most distinguished ecclesiastics in the
kingdom, who had the credit not only of possessing
ample revenues, but also of being men of remarkable
ability. It was foreseen that the Bishop of Lincoln
would not at all appreciate the honour which was thus
to be forced upon his clergy ; neither was there any
intention of asking his consent, for his refusal might
be taken for granted. Accordingly, they again had
recourse to the good offices of Archbishop Hubert,
who, although he had recently been forced by the
Pope to resign the office of Justiciar, was none the less
willing to lend his aid in the King's dubious measures
of finance.

Acting upon the advice given him, Richard wrote to
the Archbishop, requesting him " to choose from the
clergy of the Cathedral of Lincoln twelve canons,
endowed with equal prudence and eloquence, capable
of furthering the interests of their Sovereign, and of
acting as his representatives, at their own expense, in
Rome, in Germany, in Spain, or wherever they might
be sent."

Instead of indignantly rejecting this despotic order,
the Archbishop consented to take the responsibility of

3 88 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

it upon his own shoulders. 1 In accordance with the
King's instructions, he wrote twelve letters, 2 under his
archiepiscopal seal, to twelve of the most distinguished
prebendaries of the Church of Lincoln. These he
forwarded to the Bishop, together with a covering letter
addressed to St. Hugh himself, wherein he requested
his suffragan to distribute the despatches to those
whom they concerned, and to bid them repair to the
presence of the Archbishop, and thence to place them-
selves at the King's disposal in Normandy with as little
delay as possible.

When the Archbishop's messenger arrived at the
manor of Bugden, where St. Hugh was then staying,
dinner was on the point of being served. Hugh took
the packet of letters, and quietly opened it, without
deigning to notice the supercilious air of the messenger,
who was a Court ecclesiastic, full of arrogance and
haughtiness. The Bishop, after intimating the purport
of the letter to those interested, made no answer for the
present, but sat down to table with his clergy. They,
not unnaturally, were considerably excited, and ex-
changed comments in a low voice, wishing that the
Bishop would overhear them, but not daring to address

1 It is, perhaps, hardly needful to point out that the proposal of
utilizing ecclesiastics as ambassadors to foreign courts would not in itself
have appeared at all extravagant at that epoch. In fact, such functions
were generally discharged by ecclesiastics. The point of St. Hugh's
objection would seem to be that it was a serious injustice to his Cathedral
church to deprive it of the services of so large a number of its most
distinguished canons at one time. The duty of residence was one upon
which St. Hugh strongly insisted ; see his Constitution above, pp 155, 156.
Moreover, in strict law it was forbidden by repeated enactments that
ecclesiastics should mix themselves up in secular affairs. See, for instance,
the icth decree of the Third Council of Lateran (1179), or the Synod of
Rouen (1190), cap. 9. L^D.J

2 Magna Vita, bk. v. eh. 7. The phrase duodccim p^ria litcrarum,
used by the biographer, offers an interesting parallel to such locutions as a
"pair of organs," or the still surviving "pair of beads," and "pair of
stairs." [ED. 1

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 389

him directly. What most troubled them was the fear
that his answer to the despatch was likely to be an
extremely stiff one, and they were inclined to think
that in such a grave predicament, it would be better to
adopt a conciliatory tone. In their idea, the wisest
course would be to appeal to the Archbishop first, and
get him to revoke the fatal order.

St. Hugh pretended to hear nothing, and was deter-
mined to seek no counsel from those who were so
obviously under the influence of fear. He waited until
dinner was over, and then at last turned to the haughty
messenger.

" This is a new demand," he said, " a thing utterly
unheard of; and understand that I am speaking both
of the request made by the King's authority and also of
what my Lord Archbishop has added of his own. You
may tell him from me that I do not intend to carry his
messages for him. I have never done so in the past,
and I will not do it in the future, just as I have never
urged and never will urge any of my clergy to render
feudal services to the King's Majesty. Over and over
again have I interfered to restrain ecclesiastics, even
when belonging to other dioceses, if they held benefices
in my own, from placing themselves, as forest-justices
or public functionaries of any sort, at the beck and call
of a worldly following. 1 Some of them even, if they
would not listen to the good advice I gave them, I have
punished by depriving them for a long time of their
prebends. How then could I possibly pluck from the
very heart of my church the men whom I am now

1 Magna Vita, p. 202: " In publicis functionibus ut est in distrahendis
forestis et aliis in hunc modum administrationibus. " This must be an
allusion, I think, to something which we find referred to in Hoveden and
Benedict under the year 1184: "On the death of Thomas Fitz Bernard,
Chief Justice of Forests, the King divided his forests in England into
different districts, and over each district he set four justices, two clerics and
two knights," &c, (Hoveden, ii. p. 289.) [ED.]

390 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

desired to send on the King's service P 1 Surely it should
be enough for my lord the King that at the peril of
their souls and to the neglect of the sacred duties they
have taken upon themselves, the Archbishops have
devoted all their energies to the management of his
affairs of State. 2 But if he is not satisfied with this,
well then the canons shall go to him, but their Bishop
will come with them, determined to take his royal com-
mands from no other lips than his own, and ready
punctually to carry out his orders just so far as they are
right and lawful.

1 "According to St. Osmund's Institution of 1091, the only excuse for
absence for Sarttm prebendaries were archidiaconal functions, special study
(causa scholarum), attendance as chaplain on the King (for one Canon)*
on the Archbishop (one), or the Bishop of the diocese (for three) ; and four
months' absence might be allowed where it was a case of manifest import-
ance for the Cathedral Church or the prebend. For Hereford, pilgrimage,
Chapter-business, and studies are specified as ground for asking leave of
absence for residents." (Wordsworth, Lincoln Cathedral Statutes, vol. iii.
p. 803, note.) At Lincoln we find the duty of residence clearly defined in
a document which must have been framed not long after St. Hugh's time.
(Statutes, vol. ii. pp. 143150.) The obligation of providing a vicar
choral, i.e. , a substitute to take his place in singing the Divine Office, is
there declared to be binding on all who are absent for more than a third
part of the year, and those who are absent for two-thirds of the year forfeit
a seventh of the value of their prebend. I do not think that it must be for
a moment supposed that these regulations allowed the canons to be absent
for a third or two-thirds of the year at will, on condition of finding a
vicar and forfeiting a certain portion of their revenues. It was assumed
that their absence was brought about by some other ecclesiastical duty,
e.%,, that they might reside upon their prebend or discharge the functions
of archdeacon, &c. A great deal of information upon the question of
residence may be gathered from the three volumes of the Lincoln Cat bed nil
Statutes, and there is also an interesting account of the Vicars Choral of
Lincoln Cathedral, by A. R. Maddison, F.S.A. [Eo.]

2 In the light of the vision of the Eynsham monk, which was then
probably fresh in Hugh's memory,' it would seem likely that he was
alluding here not merely to Hubert and Geoffrey, but to Baldwin also.
"In sooth," says the monk in speaking of the last-named, "when ho was
Bishop of Canterbury, and also specially full excellent in cunning (know-
ledge) full little heed he took to his cure (of souls) and to the ghostly health
of his people ; " with much more to the same effect. [ED.]

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 391

" And as for you, my good sir, you may take back
home again the dozen letters you tell me you have
brought, and a very good riddance both to you and to
them. Remember only to repeat to my lord Archbishop
every word of what I have been saying, and finally
impress upon him that if my clergy are to go to the
King as proposed, I go with them. They shall not
travel without me now, as I on previous occasions have
not travelled without them. It is a part of the right
order which should subsist both between the good
shepherd and his sheep and the good sheep and their
shepherd, that he should not let them stray by heed-
lessly exposing them to danger, and that they should
not quit his side to wander about at random."

The Archbishop's messenger was choking with anger.
He would probably have replied with a torrent of insults
and threats, but the Bishop interrupted him, and ordered
him peremptorily to withdraw. Cowed and discomfited,
he took his departure, and carried the news of his
reception to Canterbury. St. Hugh, however, did not
refuse to send some of his most trusted friends to the
Archbishop, to try and inspire him with other views
more in conformity with his sacred office. They besought
him to pause before thus playing into the King's hands,
and not to authorize measures which he was bound, in
conscience, to condemn. Hubert appeared to be moved
by these remonstrances, although he showed much dis-
pleasure at what he called the disobedience of his
suffragan. He promised to second the protest of the
Bishop of Lincoln, so far as he could do so without
injury to the King's interests. And he gave St. Hugh's
envoys to understand that he would do his best to stop
the proposal from going further, or at least to reduce it
to a more acceptable form.

St. Hugh put little faith in these promises, which
the event proved to have been anything but sincere.

392 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

Only a very short time afterwards, in fact, instead of
hearing that the King had withdrawn his commands,
an edict was published ordering the officers of the
treasury to seize the property of the Bishop of Lincoln.
" Did I not tell you so ? " said St. Hugh to his clergy.
" After the voice of Jacob, behold the hands of Esau ! "

Nevertheless, he determined to make a last appeal
to his Archbishop, and set out for London. The only
advice he could obtain from Hubert and several other
nobles, was to get a considerable sum of money from
his clergy, and send it to the King as soon as possible.
" Do you not know, my lord Bishop," said the
Primate, " that the King thirsts for money, as a drop-
sical man thirsts for water ? " " That may be," replied
St. Hugh, "but if the King is afflicted with dropsy,
I have no wish to be the water that he swallows to
relieve it."

He soon saw that nothing was to be hoped for from
the Archbishop, and took the resolution of going to the
King himself, as he had done on a previous occasion.
So he returned in haste to Lincoln, to make his pre-
parations, intending to start in a few days.

There was indeed no time to lose, for Richard did
not seem disposed to allow his edict of confiscation to
become a dead letter. The difficulty was, however, as
it had previously been, to find any agents sufficiently
bold to lay hands upon the Bishop's property. t The
first who were charged with this perilous mission pro-
crastinated as long as they could ; and then, not being
able to overcome their terror, they ventured humbly to
represent to the King the danger to which he was
exposing them. To draw down upon themselves the
malediction of the Bishop of Lincoln, they said, was to
court certain death : for God cursed those whom His
servant had cursed, and confirmed his sentence with
the most terrible chastisements,

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 393

These considerations had no weight with the King.
11 Since our English are such cowards," he replied, con-
temptuously, "let us send Marchadeus, who will know
how to deal with this Burgundian." Marchadeus 1 was
a certain desperado, whom Richard had taken into his
service as captain of his " routiers." He was noted for
his savage ferocity, a man lawless and godless, ready
for any crime or sacrilege, and the very person to carry
out the edict of spoliation which had been decreed
against the Bishop of Lincoln. But a courtier begged
the King to think twice before parting with this worthy.
" My lord King," he said, " Marchadeus is very useful
to you just now. If he falls under the Bishop of
Lincoln's anathema, depend upon it you will never set
eyes on him again ; and that will be inconvenient."
The King was struck by this advice, and thought it
more prudent to keep Marchadeus in Normandy. Yet,
with a strange inconsistency, he did not fear to expose
himself to the danger he dreaded for his follower. He
persisted therefore in his decree of confiscation, and
charged one of his knights, named Stephen of Turnham, 2
as he valued his life, to carry it into execution at once.
Stephen was by no means an unprincipled man, and
was even personally attached to St. Hugh, but he was
afraid to brave the King's anger any longer. Very
reluctantly he set about obeying the order, and without

1 Marchadeus is mentioned by Hoveden and some other chroniclers of
this period, e.g., by the author of the rhyming Histoire de Guillaume le
Marshal. When Richard, after being struck down by the arrow of Bertram
de Gourdun, generously ordered Bertram to be released, it was Marchadeus
who, after the King's death, seized the unfortunate youth and ha'd him
flayed alive. Marchadeus himself met a violent death shortly afterwards.
The form of the name commonly used by French writers is Mercadier.
(See an article on this soldier of fortune in the Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des
Chartes, by H. Gue'raud, series i. vol. iii. pp. 417 443.) [ED.]

2 Stephen of Turnham was a man of some consideration. He had
been seneschal of Anjou under Henry II., and in 9 and 10 Ric. I. was
sheriff of Wilts, as also justiciar and King's tallager in Surrey. [Eo.j

394 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

himself going to Lincoln, he sent a party of officers in
his name, to take possession of all the goods and
estates belonging to the see.

While these agents were making their way towards
his diocese, St. Hugh himself was preparing to leave it.
It was not that he sought to escape by flight, but he
wished to see the King, and try once more to soften
him. He announced his resolution to the canons
assembled in Chapter. Before taking leave of them he
celebrated Solemn High Mass, at the end of which he
gave them his blessing, making use of the formula
employed in days of old by the priests of Israel, and
inserted in the ritual of Lincoln by his command. 1
" The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord show
His face to thee, and have mercy on thee. The Lord
turn His countenance to thee, and give thee peace." 5
Then he recommended himself to the prayers of each
of his sons, embraced them all tenderly, and addressed
them by way of farewell in the words of the Apostle :
" And now I commend you to God, and to the word of
His grace." 3 We can easily imagine the grief and
emotion of the canons, who loved him so faithfully, at
this parting.

St. Hugh set out, attended as usual, in the direction
of the manor of Bugden. As he drew near Peter-
borough, his attendants observed a troop of men
approaching, whose aspect was not at all reassuring.
They were, in fact, the officers sent to execute the

1 It was in some sense a peculiarity of the uses of Western Europe to
provide a very large number of forms for the Pontifical benediction at the
Agnus' Dei of the Mass, varying with the feast. Great freedom was used
in adding to these forms, and when new feasts were introduced into the
calendar it was a common practice to add a new form of benediction, either
in the Pontifical, or in a book specially consecrated to this purpose, and
called a Benedictional. The form referred to above is to be met with in
the Bodleian MS. Rawlinson, C. 425, but it is there inserted in the nuptial
Mass. (See Westminster Missal, vol. iii. p. 1237.) [^D.]

2 Numbers vi. 24 26. 3 Acts xx. 32.

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 395

mandate of confiscation, who intended to begin opera-
tions by taking possession of the Bishop's manor of
Sleaford. They were, however, much more fright-
ened of St. Hugh and his attendants, than the latter
were of them. Turning aside from the path, the officers
left the road clear for the Saint, but they found an
opportunity to get a word with some of his attendants,
and to them they made abject apologies for their
errand. Nothing, they declared, but the King's terrible
threats against their master would have induced them
to stir in such a hateful business ; but it was a matter of
life and death for all of them, and they could not help
themselves. Their excuses, as Hugh's biographer notes,
were an echo of those of the third captain sent by the
perfidious King Ochozias to the Prophet Elias. Then
they went on to implore that the Bishop would withhold
his curse and make his peace with the King, promising
in the meantime that they would do all in their power
to keep his property from harm.

Their words and entreaties were repeated to the
Bishop, but they produced little effect upon him. " It
is not for such as these," he said, " to take care of our
interests. Let them go on their way, and do their
worst. If they touch our goods, or rather those of our
Queen, Mary, the Holy Mother of God, they do it at
their peril." And so speaking, he drew from his breast
the fringe of a linen stole, 1 which he always wore under
his mantle when on a journey, and shook it, saying,
" Be assured that this little strip of linen has power to

1 The stole is pre-eminently the symbol of spiritual power and jurisdic-
tion. This conception seems to have been deeply rooted in the mediaeval
mind, and is of early date. There is much intrinsic probability in favour of
the identity of origin of the stole and the archiepiscopal pallium. (Cf.
Duchesne, Origines, pp. 370 380, and Grisar, Jubildum des Deutschen
Campo Santo, pp. 83, seq. ) And how closely the latter is identified with the
idea of jurisdiction, appears even as early as the sixth century, in the letters
of St. Gregory the Great. The stole is always used in the administration
of a sacrament, as also in exorcisms, excommunications, &c. L^D.]

396 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

bring about the restitution, even to the last farthing, of
all they may dare to steal from us."

He left the treasury agents a prey to their terrors,
and continued his journey to Bugden. As soon as he
arrived there, he sent letters immediately to the arch-
deacons and deans of those districts in which he
owned estates, ordering them to call together the priests
of the neighbouring parishes, and to pronounce solemn
excommunication, with book, bell, and candle, 1 against
those who dared to lay violent hands on the property of
his Church, as soon as the King's agents appeared.
The excommunication was to extend to those who had
instigated, as well as to those who were the actual
instruments of the spoliation.

Having thus satisfied his conscience, St. Hugh lay
down upon his bed, and fell immediately into a peaceful
sleep. That night he was heard to repeat his favourite
Amen rather oftener, and more emphatically than
usual. He seemed, even while unconscious, to be ex-
pressing his entire conformity to the will of God, and
his conviction that Divine Providence would never
abandon him.

1 In English, the phrase " excommunication with book, bell, and
candle" seems to have become stereotyped, but in Latin we find here in
the Magna Vita, and elsewhere, no mention of the book, but only pulsatis
campanis accensisque candelis. So, for instance, the decrees issued by the
Council of York, held under the presidency of Archbishop Hubert, in
1195. (Wilkins, i. p. 502.) The ceremonies here alluded to were only used
in the case of the excommunicatio major, or solemn anathema, and were
intended to strike terror into the beholders. The candles, at the close of
the ceremony, were thrown down and stamped out, and the form of
excommunication prayed that : " As these candles, cast from our handSf
are this day extinguished, so may his lamp be extinguished for ever, unless
perchance he repent," &c. The bells apparently were rung during the
earlier part of the ceremony, and then were silent ; the idea being,
according to Angelo Rocca, that bells being used to exorcise the devil, the
silence of the bells was symbolical of a surrender of the excommunicated
person to diabolical influence. (Cf. Maskell, Monumenta Ritiialia, ii.
p. ccxx.) [Eo.]

THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN. 397

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER IX.

When we find St. Hugh, in this chapter as else-
where, describing the estates of the see of Lincoln as
belonging to our Blessed Lady, it must not be supposed
that this idea was merely an ingenious invention of his,
devised to throw a cloak of piety over his resistance to
the royal demands. Hugh was speaking not only as
the devout client of Mary, the Mother of God, but as
a skilled and experienced jurist. I should like to quote
at length the sections of Pollock and Maitland's History
of English Law , in which this subject is dealt with (vol. i.
pp. 481 495), but I must content myself with a few
sentences. " In the Anglo-Saxon land-books," say the
authors, "this notion that God and the Saints are the
true owners of what we should call ' church lands,' is
put before us in many striking phrases. In the oldest
of them the newly converted Ethelbert says : * To thee,
St. Andrew, and to thy church at Rochester, where
Justus the Bishop presides, do I give a portion of my
land.' 1 The Saint is the owner; his church at this
place or that is mentioned because it is necessary to
show of which of his many estates the gift is to form
part. ..." " There are human beings who are directing
the affairs of the Saint and the church, receiving, dis-
tributing, enjoying the produce of the land. They are
the Saint's administrators ; they are the rectores of his
church, his and his representatives." Or again : " Very
often in Domesday Book the Saint is the land-owner ;
St. Paul holds land, St. Constantine holds land, the
Count of Mortain holds lands of St. Petroc, Leofstan
held land under ' the glorious King Edmund ' (the
martyr). . . . The church of Worcester, an episcopal

1 Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus, No. i ; Haddan and Stubbs, Concilia,
iii. 52.

398 THE AFFAIR OF THE CANONS OF LINCOLN.

church, has lands, and St. Mary of Worcester holds
them."

It is to this conception that we owe the term parson
as applied to the rector of a parish church. Professor
Maitland explains it well in the following words : " We
have seen how Bracton laid stress upon the usual form
of pious gifts ; they are made in the first place to God
and the saints ; only in a secondary way are they made
to abbots, monks, and the like. Now this idea of the
Saint or the church as the subject of rights prevents
the emergence of many difficulties which puzzled the
lawyers of later days. Especially was this the case
when the church was an ordinary parish church, with
but one ecclesiastic in any way connected with it. That
person was the rector of the church, and during his
tenure of office he might be said to bear, or to be, the
persona of the church." The parson, therefore, in a
certain very intelligible sense, impersonated St. Peter,
or St. Andrew, or St. Paul, whoever might be the
patron to whom his church was dedicated. He acted
in their name, and represented their interests. This
was why St. Hugh felt himself to be truly the repre-
sentative, the champion, of his Lady St. Mary, to
whom his Cathedral was dedicated. When the estates
belonging to the see of Lincoln were forcibly seized, it
was not he, Hugh of Avalon, who was deprived of
them as far as he was concerned the King might take
his goods and welcome but it was Mary, the Queen
of Heaven, whose rights were outraged, and these he
could not suffer to be impaired in the smallest parti-
cular without a flagrant violation of his episcopal
oath. [Eo.]

CHAPTER X.

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

ST. HUGH made a short stay at Bugden, before resum-
ing his journey to London. Whilst he was setting in
order the affairs of his diocese, and otherwise making
final preparations for his departure, he received a visit
from a rural dean residing in the neighbourhood, who
came to consult him about a reputed witch who lived
in his parish. This woman was very much sought after
by the superstitious peasantry. She professed to be
able to tell when a theft had been committed, and who
had committed it, and likewise to detect cases where
magic was secretly employed. When the dean or any
other learned and prudent man attempted to question
or reprove her, she poured out such a torrent of words
that her questioner was completely overwhelmed and
reduced to silence. No one could stop the volubility
of her tongue ; she would always have the last word.
"Very well," said the Bishop, "I shall be leaving for
London in a few days, and shall pass through your
parish : bring the woman to me then." The holy man,
hoped, perhaps, to gain another victory over Satan his
arch-enemy, who was, he felt, at the bottom of the many
persecutions he was just then enduring. Nothing offends
the devil more than the deliverance of an unfortunate
creature of whom he has taken possession. For there,

400 THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

where his infernal power has been most visible, his real
weakness in the presence of One stronger than himself
is equally manifested. At the command of a true
servant of God, the fallen spirit is forced to release
his prey, and to acknowledge his defeat ; while those
who witness the victory are also encouraged to avoid
his snares and to resist him with a firm hope founded
upon prayer and the grace of God.

Only a short time before this, when the Bishop of
Lincoln was returning from London, Divine Providence
had thrown in his way a person possessed of the devil,
and we will relate this previous cure before that of the
witch already spoken of. It was on a Sunday morning.
St. Hugh had just arrived at Cheshunt, near Waltham
Abbey. Nearly all his attendants had gone on in
advance, and he was accompanied by only a few of his
clergy. In the middle of the town, he was stopped and
surrounded by a crowd of people groaning and lament-
ing. They implored the Bishop to give his blessing to
a poor sailor who was cruelly tormented by the devil.
One morning, as this unfortunate man was sleeping
on board his ship, which was loaded with wood for
London, he was seized by the infernal spirit, and began
to tear his own flesh with his teeth and hands. His
terrified companions, fearing themselves to become the
victims of his fury, succeeded with great difficulty in
securing him with ropes. They had at last brought
him home, and he was now lying bound in his own
house. The house was close at hand, and on the
Bishop guiding his horse thither, the door was thrown
open, and a terrible sight met his view. He was
horror-struck, and dismounting quickly from his horse,
exclaimed: "Oh, this is dreadful! This must not go
on ! " The poor demoniac was lying on the ground, his
head was fastened to the door, his hands firmly bound
to two stakes, and his feet to another post. His eyes

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS. 40!

protruded and rolled from side to side ; his mouth was
distorted and twitching convulsively ; sometimes he
thrust out his tongue, hideously swollen ; sometimes
he ground his teeth, or opened his jaws so wide, as to
display the whole cavity of the mouth and throat. 1
Those who beheld him might have profited by the
sight to form some idea of the ugliness of the prince of
evil.

The Bishop approached the unfortunate man, made
the sign of the Cross, bent over him and placed his
hand upon the hideous, gaping mouth, saying, in a
low voice, the beginning of the Gospel of St. John :
In principio evat Verbum. The possessed felt the effect
of the sacred words and the touch of the man
of God ; the convulsive movements ceased, and he
lay quite still, half opening his eyes and looking
timidly at his charitable exorcist. The Bishop
finished the Gospel, as far as the words, plenum
gratia et veritatis ; then stood erect, and silently
gazed at the captive of Satan. The devil could
not bear this inspection, and forced the poor creature
to turn away his head and thrust out his tongue
in an insulting manner. Hugh was indignant at
this resistance of the evil spirit. He called for
water and salt, blessed and mixed them accord-
ing to the ritual of the Church, and sprinkled the
possessed. He then instructed those who were
standing by to pour some of the holy water into
the mouth of the unfortunate man, gave his blessing
to all, and resumed his journey. His presence in
truth was no longer necessary : the evil spirit had
fled, and his victim obtained the still greater grace
of an entire conversion to God, which set soul
as well as body free from the power of the devil.
He spent the remainder of his life in making pious

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 8.
AA

402 THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

pilgrimages, 1 and died an edifying death a few years
afterwards. 2

St. Hugh was now to gain a fresh victory over his
enemy, by curing the witch of whom he heard at
Bugden. She was brought to him as he had com-
manded, by the rural dean, surrounded by a great
crowd, in the midst of which were several little children
who were coming to receive Confirmation. The Bishop
dismounted from his horse and addressed himself, so
his biographer tells us, not to the woman, but to the
demon that possessed her. " Come, then, vile spirit,"
he said. " Let us test your powers of divination," and
so saying, he stretched out his right hand, in which he
held concealed the end of his stole. " Come, I say,
tell me, if you can, what I have hidden in this hand."
Whether the unfortunate woman was really possessed,
or only a half crazy impostor trading on the supersti-
tions of the ignorant rustics, no further exorcism was
required than the Bishop's presence and his half-mock-
ing question. The so-called witch, who at first had met

1 In the middle ages this was quite a recognized means of livelihood.
It was a common thing to give an alms to a poor man, which might enable
him to make a pilgrimage to some celebrated shrine, and there pray for
the donor's intention. Legacies for such vicarious pilgrimages are not
unfrequently found in ancient wills. [ED.]

- In the year 1219, when Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and John, Abbot of Fountains, as Papal Commissioners, made inquisition
into the alleged miracles of St. Hugh, with a view to his canonization, this
cure of the madman at Cheshunt was one of the cases which came before
them for examination. Amongst the witnesses was AcUun, Abbot of
Eynsham, the author of the Magna V r ita t who had been present on the
occasion. A copy of the report of the Commissioners, which was made
the basis of the Legenda read on St. Hugh's feast, is to be found in the
Harleian MS. 526. This gives the official account, and lets us see that the
Commissioners were quite in earnest in sifting the evidence thoroughly.
We learn from it that the sailor's name was Roger Cullioppc, and that
among the witnesses examined were three men, whose names are given,
and the sailor's two daughters, all eye-witOMMS, a> \\rll as the parish
priest. See also MS. Lansdowne, 436, anil Cotton Roll, xiii. 27, the latter
of which corrects one or two errors in the text printed by Mr. Dimock,
Giraldus, vol. vii. pp. 188 190. Cf. Magna Vita, Preface, p. xxxviii. [ED.]

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS. 403

his gaze defiantly, the moment St. Hugh addressed her,
fell down in a swoon at his feet. As she made no
attempt to rise, St. Hugh bade some of the bystanders
attend to her, and when she was sufficiently recovered
he asked her a few questions, with the aid of the dean,
for the poor woman's dialect was unintelligible to him.
She was too frightened or too bewildered to make much
answer, but she confessed she knew nothing of magic,
and begged the holy Bishop's forgiveness.

St. Hugh laid his hand upon her head, uttered a
short prayer, and gave her his blessing. He then
ordered her to be taken to the Prior of Huntingdon,
the penitentiary of the district, in order that she might
make her confession and receive a salutary penance. 1
Her conversion was lasting and sincere. The reputed
witch dabbled in magic no longer, but rather gave
herself to lamenting her past sins ; and as she had
formerly been bold and loquacious, so now she became
modest and silent, to the great edification of all who
had known her in former days. 2

1 No doubt St. Hugh would then and there have heard her confession
himself if it had not been for the difficulty of understanding her. It has
been inferred from this instance, and from another, to be mentioned a few
pages further on, of St. Hugh's use of an interpreter, that the Saint did
not understand English (see Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. v. p. 891) ;
but I must own that I agree rather with Bishop Stubbs, that the terms in
which the need of an interpreter is referred to rather imply the contrary.
"St. Hugh of Lincoln," he says, "who was a Burgundian by birth, did
not understand the dialects of Kent and Huntingdonshire, but he was
addressed by the natives as if it were naturally to be expected that he
would comprehend what they said." (Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i.
p. 616.) [ED.]

2 The account of this incident given in the French original has been
condensed and somewhat modified in the present translation. Although
St. Hugh's chaplain no doubt hailed the cure as miraculous, his plain and
truthful narrative in the Magna Vita does not suggest that the Saint himself
detected anything more directly diabolical about this so-called witch than
the design to make a fraudulent profit out of the fears and superstitions of
her neighbours. It may be added that in other parts of this chapter I have
not felt bound to reproduce the exact words or the comments of the French
biographer. [Eo.]

404 THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

Long before this time St. Hugh had gained a certain
reputation for his skill in dealing with the victims of
diabolical possession. One day the Bishop of Exeter,
Bartholomew by name, 1 and a prelate renowned for his
learning, came to tell St. Hugh of a poor woman in
his diocese who was most cruelly tormented by an evil
spirit. She would never give consent to the tyranny
of Satan, but resisted him by every means in her
power. She confessed frequently, fasted and prayed,
and practised many austerities, until her health was
seriously affected by them. The devil ridiculed all her
efforts, and continued to persecute her. Whether God
allowed this to punish her for some previous fault, or
whether He wished to try her, as He tried holy Job and
many other saints, it is impossible to say. But the
time of her deliverance was at hand.

St. Hugh felt the deepest compassion for the poor
victim when he was told of her suffering. " Since this
person," he said, " strives against sin by penance and
mortification, I know of no other counsel to give her.
Nothing remains but to implore the mercy of our
Divine Redeemer on her behalf."

The Bishop of Exeter assured the Saint that he and
many of the priests in his diocese had besieged Heaven
with prayers for her deliverance, but entirely without
result. " Do you intercede for her now, my brother,"
he said, " I implore of you." " Yes," replied St. Hugh,
*' most willingly will I do so ; and every Christian
should pray for her, from his heart." And kneeling
down, he straightway poured forth his soul in one of
those ardent supplications for mercy, to which God has
promised never to turn a deaf ear. The prayer was
efficacious, the woman was delivered, and lived after-
wards in great repute for holiness.

1 This Bishop died on the 151)1 of December, 1184. So that, if
St. Hugh's biographer makes no mistake in the name, the incident that
follows must have occurred while the Saint was still Prior of \Viiham.

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS. 405

Another similar occurrence, believed to be mira-
culous, took place in Lincoln Cathedral ; we do not
know exactly at what date. An inhabitant of the city
fell ill of a fever, and when the fever left him went
raving mad. Every one regarded it as a case of
diabolical possession. So great was his strength, that
it took eight men to hold him. In spite of the chains
with which he was bound it was dangerous to go too
near ; for in his madness he attempted to bite all who
approached, without excepting even his wife and
children. One of his relations proposed to take the
unfortunate man to the Bishop, 1 and the demoniac was
accordingly brought to the Cathedral in a cart and the
Saint was entreated to do what he could for him.
Hugh, full of compassion, sprinkled the maniac with
holy water, commanding the evil spirit to come out of
him and torment the man no longer. The command
was instantly obeyed. The sick man fell to the ground
as one dead, but on being again copiously sprinkled
with holy water, he revived and stood up sane and well.
Raising his hands, which were still bound, to heaven, he
exclaimed : " I thank Thee, O my God ! " and turning
to his deliverer, he added : " I thank thee, O holy
Bishop ! " Then they released him from his bonds, and
he quietly returned home to his family, without ever
afterwards experiencing a relapse into the same in-
firmity. 2

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER X.

How far St. Hugh in the different episodes just
recounted believed himself to be in actual conflict with

1 This relative, Roger Fitz Warren by name, gave evidence of the
miracle before the Papal Commissioners, in 1119. There had been other
eye-witnesses, but Roger stated that they were then dead. See Harleian
MS. 526, and Cotton Roll, xiii. 27. [Eo.]

2 Ann. Ord. Cartus. vol. iii. p. 80 ; Vita Metrica, vv. 1088 1106.
This miracle is not given in the Magna Vita^ but is printed in Giraldus,
vii. p. 179.

406 THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

the spirit of evil, does not appear quite clearly from
the pages of the Magna Vita. We cannot safely assume
that his point of view was necessarily that of his
biographer. That St. Hugh believed in diabolical
possession is beyond all possible doubt, just as it is
beyond a doubt that he believed in miracles. 1 But the
most unhesitating conviction of the possibility of these
preternatural occurrences in the abstract, is quite con-
sistent with an attitude of caution as to the acceptance
of any individual miracle or any individual case of
possession. It was certainly characteristic of our Saint
not to be over-credulous. Several details in the Life
illustrate his independence of judgment in such matters,
and over and above these incidents themselves we have
the explicit statement of his biographer, who seems to
have been a man of a somewhat different complexion
and to have been more inclined than his patron to
cultivate an appetite for the marvellous. Here at any
rate is the testimony of Abbot Adam, as it may be read
in the prologue to the third book of the Magna Vita.

" In recounting," he writes, " the history of his life
as a Bishop, we shall not seek so much to excite super-
fluously the wonder of those who may read or listen
to our narrative, as to set out things holy and whole-
some for the edification of those who desire to know
and to imitate them. For in this matter also the

1 The reader may be reminded of the miraculous vision of Prior Basil,
by which St. Hugh believed himself to have been cured of a violent
temptation of the flesh (Magna Vita, bk. ii. ch. 2 ; supra, p. 72), a vision
which he narrated more than once to his chaplain, and especially in great
detail just before his death. Again, it is clear that the Saint thoroughly
approved and believed in the miraculous occurrences attending the vision
of the monk of Eynsham (supra, p. 351), so again in the story of the
crusader knight of Maurienne (Magna Vita, bk. iv. ch. 12), which he was
fond of telling, he dwelt upon the sweet odour with which the knight
was preternaturally consoled everyday at the same hour. Of St. Hugh's
extraordinary keenness in collecting and venerating i flics we have yet to
speak.

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS. 407

Blessed Hugh had perfectly imbibed the sober and
humble spirit of the founders of the Carthusian Order,
so that there was nothing he seemed less to appreciate
or to be keen about than miracles and wonders. It is
true that when he heard or knew such things about
saintly men he used very pleasantly to relate them,
and he regarded miracles with the deepest veneration ;
but he recounted them chiefly to enhance the glory of
those who did these marvels and to spur on those who
were moved by the hearing of them. For his own part,
the one miracle which impressed him, the one example
which roused him to imitation, was the holiness of the
saints in itself. What took the place of all other
miracles for him, was the simple remembrance deep
down in his heart of the God who had made him, and
of the stupendous and inexhaustible multitude of His
good gifts to men." 1

It will be noticed that St. Hugh's biographer is very
far from saying that the Saint disbelieved in miracles
in general, or even was sceptical and hard to convince
in the case of any particular miracle. On the contrary,
he declares that he recounted such things readily when
he saw that others were helped by them, but none the
less he himself was so deeply impressed with the daily
miracle of God's love for man and the miracles of grace
and the sacraments, that he had little temptation to
run after more vulgar marvels which might or might
not be vitiated by fraud or imposture.

With regard to the treatment of the poor sufferers
brought to St. Hugh, whether he considered them as
demoniacs or simply as insane, it may be said that the
methods he employed to cure them were those univer-
sally in use at that epoch. As the learned Bollandist,
Father Victor de Buck, points out, hardly any attempt
was made in the middle ages to distinguish between
1 Magna Vita (Rolls Series), p. 97.

4 o8 THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS.

lunatics and possessed persons. 1 The exorcisms, the
copious use of holy water, the fasting and the binding
in church, the laying of the stole upon their heads or
necks, the reading over them of Gospels, &c., were
practices adopted almost indifferently in all such cases.
The reading of a Gospel over the sick, and more
particularly of the beginning of the Gospel of St. John,
In principio erat Verbum, &c., seems to have been the
most favourite remedy of all. Even to this day it is
common for the Irish peasantry to ask to have a
Gospel read, 2 and, indeed, it is prescribed in the Ritnalc
Romanum, in the section " De Visitatione et Cura Infir-
morum." The practice seems to be as old as the time
of St. Augustine. Many examples might be quoted
from the lives of the saints. I will be content to recall
that of St. Yvo of Treguier, who put a reputed demoniac
into a bed near his own, and cured him by sprinkling
him with holy water and reading over him the Gospel
of St. John. Just at this period in England there
seems to have been quite a furore, if one may use such
a word in this connection, for having Gospels read,
and especially additional Gospels to be read by the
priest at the altar during or after Mass. Giraldtis
Cambrensis, in his Gemma Ecclesiastica, tells many
curious stories of the extravagant lengths to which this
practice of " multiplying Gospels " was carried. It was
fostered by the cupidity of some unworthy members

1 An admirable little dissertation will be found on this subject in the
Acta Sanctorum, vol. 58, pp. 852856. Father de Buck's remarks an-
suggested by a reference to the Shrine of St. Florentinus at Bonnet,
which was formerly a great place of resort for the cure of mad people.

2 The reading of Gospels over the sick seems to have been a prominent
feature of Celtic Christianity everywhere. The Stowe Missal gives an
" Ordo ad visitandum infirmum," in which two extracts from the Gospels
are found. In the Book of Deer also, and some other similar collections,
a form of Communion for the Sick occurs bound up with a number of
Gospels.

THE CURE OF MANY POSSESSED PERSONS. 409

of the clergy, who used to exact an offering for the
Gospels thus added to the Mass for various private
intentions. One of Giraldus' stories has reference to
St. Hugh, and is told in these words : l

" Likewise that venerable man, Hugh, Bishop of
Lincoln, when passing by a certain parish church on
one occasion, went in to hear Mass, and found the
priest celebrating the Holy Mysteries for his parish-
ioners. After the Communion and the Ite missa est,
straightway the priest began to multiply Gospels in this
manner. First, Initium sancti evangelii, then, Spiritus
Domini, after that, Salve sancta panns? with other things
which were nothing to the purpose. When the Bishop
had heard this, he remarked humorously : What will
the poor man have to say to-morrow, since he has
given us all he knows to-day ? ' '

Giraldus adds that when those who favoured the
multiplying of Gospels were taken to task about it, they
alleged in reply : " That they have a curative virtue
and that evil dreams are put to flight by them, especially
by the beginning of St. John." 3 It will be noticed
further on, that on one occasion when St. Hugh's
travelling companions wanted to hurry him away at an
early hour, they pressed him not to celebrate Mass, but
to be content with hearing a Gospel read instead. As
might have been expected, St. Hugh refused to accept
this as a substitute for the Holy Sacrifice. [ED.]

1 Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, vol. ii. p. 129. The section of the
Gemma Ecclesiastica in which this story occurs is entitled : "Quod non
sunt evangelia multiplicanda."

2 The point seems to be that the priest pretended to be reading fresh
Gospels, when he was really saying by heart all the scraps of the liturgy
which he happened to remember, and which of course were not extracts
from the Gospel at all.

" Quia medicina est et phantasma fugat, praecipue Johannis initium."

CHAPTER XI.
PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

ON the day after his interview with the supposed witch,
of whom he had heard at Bugden, the Bishop of
Lincoln, resuming his journey, passed through the
territory of St. Albans. That celebrated abbey, with
its estates and dependencies, had been exempted from
episcopal jurisdiction some forty years before, though
the county of Hertfordshire, in which it lay, still formed
part of the Lincoln diocese. 1 Within the abbey fran-
chises St. Hugh chanced to come upon a melancholy
procession. It was a thief, condemned to death, his
hands tied behind his back, whom a party of apparitors
were leading to the gallows.

When they caught sight of the holy Bishop, they
all hastened towards him to receive his blessing. Their
prisoner was quite as anxious as any of them to solicit
this favour, for there suddenly entered into his heart
the hope of life and freedom. He threw himself down
on his knees, almost under the hoofs of the horse the
Bishop was riding, uttering piteous cries and begging
for mercy. The Saint promptly drawing bridle asked
who the man was, and what he wanted. His attendants,
who knew their master well, were in consternation. If

1 It was under Bishop Robert of Chesney that the Abbey of St. Albans
ceased to belong to the diocese of Lincoln. Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum ,
i. 128 158 ; Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, vol. iv. pp. 94 98. See also
Monastic. Anglic, vol. i. p. 176, and Mabillon, vol. ii. p. 298, and voL iv,
p. 672.

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 411

his compassion were aroused he was capable of any
rashness in order to secure the unfortunate man's
release. "My lord," they said to him, "it is not a
case which concerns your Holiness in any way. Don't
trouble about him, but continue your journey." But
this was not the way of the holy Bishop. He insisted
upon examining into the cause of this unexpected
client, and when all had been explained to him, " God
bless us!" he exclaimed (Eja I Benedictus Dens); "this
is a bad business." Then addressing the officers who
were taking the thief to execution : " My children," he
said, " do you return with me to the town. I mean to
take charge of your prisoner myself. You may tell
your chiefs and the judges that it is I who have taken
him from you. I will see that you are held guiltless in
this matter." The guards dared not disobey ; they
released their prisoner, and the Bishop immediately
ordered his hands to be untied, giving him into the
care of his almoner. Then the two escorts, that of the
Bishop and that of the condemned man, amalgamated
and marched side by side into the little town. It was
a strange spectacle for the good citizens. Was the
holy Bishop then so persecuted that he had just been
arrested by the King's troops ? Or was this armed
force in the service of the illustrious prelate ? The
enigma was soon made clear to the astonished crowd,
who gathered in the streets to see what was passing.
They understood what must have occurred, when they
perceived the criminal, now unbound, walking cheer-
fully along with the rest. Certainly he was not yet
completely delivered, but he had every reason for con-
fidence in his protector.

No sooner had St. Hugh entered the inn, 1 than all

1 We are probably right in translating hospitium as "inn." It is not
likely that St. Hugh would have attempted to find a lodging at the abbey,
if there is any truth in the story told above on p. 299. On the other hand,

4 i2 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

his own people came round him and entreated him to
allow justice to take its course. " My lord," they said,
" up to the present time, neither the King nor any one
else among your enemies have been able to reproach
you with any real offence. They have not even a
decent pretext for proceeding against you. But if
you take it upon yourself to annul by your Pontifical
authority a sentence of the justices formally passed in
the King's court and in actual process of execution,
then all who are ill-disposed will declare that you have
attacked the Crown itself, and that you are guilty of
high treason."

St. Hugh's only reply was : " Is this all the courage
and generosity that you are capable of? Go and tell
the judges to come to me; you shall hear what they
will say to me, and what answer I shall make."

The judges, in fact, had already arrived, and were
asking for an audience with the Bishop. They were
ushered into his presence. St. Hugh made them sit
down, and then spoke as follows : " You are all learned
men, and I am sure you are aware of the privilege
enjoyed by our Holy Mother Church, in every part of
the Christian world ; I mean, the right of sanctuary,
by virtue of which she is able to protect all condemned
or proscribed persons, who fly to her for refuge."

one of the points specially insisted upon in the Papal letters of exemption,
is the release of all churches dependent upon the abbey from parochial
visitations by the Bishop and from all exactions connected therewith. The
burdens thus laid upon poor parish priests were often very great. Only a
few years before, at the third Council of Lateran (1179), an effort had been
made to curtail the retinues which Bishops and other officials were in the
habit of taking with them, for whom the parish was expected to provide.
An Archbishop was not to be attended by a party of more than forty or
fifty, a Bishop by not more than twenty or thirty. Even this retinue must
have seemed formidable enough to those who were expected to furnish
entertainment for the men and fodder for their horses. In the little town
of St.Albans, within the abbey franchises, the Bishop of Lincoln had no
claim to "procurations" or hospitality of any sort. He will therefore
probably have lodged at an inn, if such was to be found. [ED.]

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 413

" Yes," replied the judges, " we readily admit that
the right of sanctuary must always be respected."

"Then," continued St. Hugh, " you will also allow
that wherever the Bishop is, in the midst of an assembly
of the faithful, there is the Church. He who both
consecrates the material stones of the sacred edifice,
and who sanctifies the living stones also of which the
Church of Christ is still more truly built up, by the
administration of those sacraments, which convert men
into the temples of the Most High, such a one, I say,
wherever he is present, ought to enjoy all those
privileges which the Church can claim, and ought to be
a living sanctuary for all those who may appeal to his
protection."

The judges, according to the testimony of Hugh's
chaplain, took it all in good part and made no protest.
" Indeed they remembered," he says, " that this doctrine
was expressed in the ancient laws of the English,
although it had latterly fallen into disuse through the
supineness of the Bishops or the tyranny of Kings." l
But whatever the original privilege may have been,
it was a bold step just then to revive it, and we
cannot be surprised that the justices, after consulting
amongst themselves, answered St. Hugh somewhat
nervously :

"My Lord," they said, "we are your sons and
members of your flock ; you are our Father and our
Pastor. We do not wish therefore to contend with
you or to dispute your prerogative, and you on your
part we are certain would be unwilling to expose us to
grave danger. You may set our prisoner free ; we will
do nothing to oppose it ; only we trust to you to take
the responsibility of the act, and to secure us from the
anger of the King." St. Hugh did not forget that he
was himself in disgrace, but he made not the least

1 Ma-gnu Vita, p. 278.

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

demur about compromising himself still more, for the
sake of this unfortunate client of his.

*' You have spoken honourably and straight-
forwardly," he answered the judges. " Be it under-
stood therefore that I have forcibly rescued the prisoner
from out of your hands, and for this violent act of mine
I am prepared to render an account whenever it shall
be necessary."

The judges retired, and the thief accompanied
St. Hugh to London. He escaped all punishment,
and was allowed by the Bishop to depart whithersoever
he would. We do not know if his after-life did
honour to his saintly protector ; but we may reasonably
hope that a sincere conversion was the fruit of the
great act of charity shown to him.

For some reason or other, no notice seems to have
been taken in London of Hugh's interference with the
course of justice. Shortly after his arrival the Bishop
of Lincoln paid a visit to the Barons of the Exchequer,
wishing, it would seem, to appeal to them to prevent any
rapine or devastation being done to the property of his
see, more especially during his absence. By the
Barons assembled in conclave he was received with
marked consideration and respect. They rose to
salute him, promised that they would do all in their
power to save his estates now presumably in their
keeping as a consequence of the confiscation from
waste or injury, and courteously besought him to be
seated for a while beside them at the famous chequer-
board, 1 from which the court derived its name.

Hugh made some difficulty at first, but eventually
allowed himself to be persuaded, and took a seat.

1 It was a long rectangular table, as we learn from the Dialogiis dc
Scaccario, measuring ten feet by five. It was covered with \\ cloth marked
out into compartments, something like a chess-board, and intended to
facilitate the primitive arithmetical computations of those days. --[El).]

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 415

Then the officials clapped their hands in triumph.
" Come now, my Lord," they said, "this is a victory.
All our lives long we shall be able to boast that we
have seen the Bishop of Lincoln sitting at the board of
the King's Exchequer." 1

Hugh felt that he had been entrapped. He coloured
a little at the pleasantry and rose immediately. Still
he saw that it was best to treat the misadventure as a
jest, and his ready wit suggested a way of extricating
himself from his embarrassment. Turning to the
Barons he embraced each one of them in order, as if to
take his leave, and then said quietly : " And I also shall
be able to boast of a victory over you, if after you have
yielded me the kiss of peace, you take any unfriendly
action against my Church."

Hugh's quickness in turning the tables on those who
were bantering him, seems to have impressed the
Barons profoundly, " Oh, what a clever move of his,"
they said to one another, " see how neatly he has tied
our hands, so that even though we act by the King's
order, we cannot without deep disgrace take any active

1 "Jam," inquiunt " triumphaliter gaudere valebimus, qui diem vidi-
mus quo ad regis scaccarium Lincolniensis sedit episcopus." The main
point of the jest seems to lie in this, that sedere ad scaccarium was a
technical phrase used of those who were permanently and officially con-
nected with the Exchequer. "Sitting at the Exchequer," says Madox
(History, vol. i. p. 197), "is here to be understood of the Barons, or
superior officers, whose service or attendance there was commonly during
this period signified by the phrase sedendi ad scaccarium," (Cf. Dialogus de
Scaccario, bk. i. ch. 8. ) It would seem that St. Hugh had always steadily
set his face against ecclesiastics, and notably Bishops, devoting themselves
so entirely to secular business as the Barons of the Exchequer were forced
to do. In this particular year of St. Hugh's visit we find named amongst
the Barons, Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey FitzPeter, the
Justiciar, Philip, Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of London, Simon de
Pateshull, Henry de Winchenton, Benedict the Jew of Talamunt, and
Joseph Aaron the last two being described as Justiciarii Judceorum.
There were probably other Barons besides these, but these are all the
names that appear in the list given by Madox. (vol. ii. p. 315.) |_ED.|

4 i6 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

step against him." Then St. Hugh gave them all his
blessing and withdrew, and a few days after crossed the
Channel on his way to join the King in Normandy.

Before he quitted England, however, yet another
consolation awaited him at Rochester. As he was
passing through this town, he crossed the bridge over
the River Medway, and there met an unfortunate young
man who, as he afterwards discovered, had formed a
desperate resolution of committing suicide. When he
saw the Bishop, the youth found courage to address
him, and by means of an interpreter, eventually revealed
his sad history. He had led a very wicked life, heaping
sin upon sin, until one day he heard a sermon upon the
grievous offence of God, and upon the special vice
which had been his ruin. The burning words of the
preacher filled him with shame and horror of himself.
" I thought," he said, " that the earth would open at
my feet, and that I should instantly be swallowed up in
Hell. The whole of that day, and far into the night, I
shed tears of anguish. Towards morning, worn out
with fatigue, I fell into a short sleep. It was then that
I saw before me a Lady of ineffable beauty, who
consoled me in these words : * Poor child ! do not give
way to despair. Think of the mercy and power of my
Son, who wishes not that any one should perish
eternally. Arise, and go to a priest whom thou
knowest, and make to him a true and entire confession
of all thy sins.'"

The youth obeyed, and set out to find a priest, but
he had not taken many steps when despair again sei/cd
him, and an old man of hideous aspect, whom he
afterwards believed to have been no other than Satan
himself, met him, and insinuated that suicide was the
only thing left for one who had committed so many
grievous sins. This terrible thought had already-
suggested itself to the unhappy man ; and he now

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 417

forgot the consoling vision of the Mother of Mercy, and
listened to the tempter. " I know," he added, " that
self-destruction means eternal death. But this terrible
thought has taken such hold of me, that twice to-day
I have tried to throw myself into the river. The first
time, there were too many people on the bridge, and I
did not dare to accomplish my purpose. The second
time, when I was nerving myself for the act, I saw you
coming. And immediately, in the presence of your
Holiness, my agony ceased, and I determined to tell
you all." 1

St. Hugh gave a kind and fatherly welcome to this
prodigal son, so opportunely arrested in the way of
perdition. He told the penitent sinner to take courage,
gave him his blessing, and invited him to follow in his
train to Canterbury, where they could speak together
more fully. The young man thankfully accepted this
proposal, and accompanied the Bishop to Canter-
bury, in which city, during the fifteen days of his stay
while waiting for favourable weather to embark, the Saint
found time to perfect the conversion of the penitent
whom he looked upon as sent to him by Mary, the
Refuge of sinners. By his instructions and prayers,
the young man was for ever delivered from his tempta-
tions, and devoutly prepared himself to make a
pilgrimage to Rome. But before his departure, he
received another favour from the man of God. Two
terrible ulcers were eating into his flesh, almost to the
bone, as a famous physician of those days, Master
Reginald Pistor, afterwards certified. 2 The holy Bishop
wished to cure body as well as soul. He ordered some
wax which was being warmed to make candles, to be
applied to the horrible wounds. The remedy imme-
diately took effect, and the ulcers cicatrized as suddenly

1 Magnet, Vita, bk. iv. ch. 2.

- In English presumably his name was Baker. [ED.]
BB

4 i8 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

as they had come, without leaving a trace of their
presence. Thus healed in body and soul, the young
man received with all the usual solemnities the pilgrim's
staff and wallet, and departed for the tomb 'of the
Apostles. After receiving the benediction of the
Sovereign Pontiff, he subsequently returned to England,
and entered a Cistercian monastery as a lay-brother,
where he became a model of regularity and religious
perseverance.

We have still to record a conversion of a different
stamp, which, although it occurred some time before
the date of which we are now treating, may be
appropriately mentioned here. It was the case of a
young man much less guilty than the would-be suicide
of Rochester, but perhaps even less fitted to all
appearance for the mortified life of a monk. Those
who are experienced in the guidance of souls, know
that it is often more easy to touch the heart of a great
sinner and bring him back-to God, than to induce an
ordinary Christian to forsake his lukewarmness and
vanity, and enter upon the path of perfection.

St. Hugh had confided the charge of the treasures
of his episcopal chapel to a young man called Martin,
who was free from any conspicuous vices, but still
considerably imbued with worldliness. Now it was
the custom at that time, for any one who had care
of the sacred vessels and other church ornaments, to have
his hair cut short after the manner of a cleric, even
though he was not actually in minor orders, besides
wearing a special vestment during the ceremonies.
St. Hugh therefore bade Martin to get his hair cut.
But the sacristan was not at all disposed to make the
sacrifice, and delayed obeying the Bishop's command,
under various pretexts, for about three days. At the
end of that time, St. Hugh was determined to put an
end to this fit of wilfulness, of which he well understood

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 419

the motive. So he followed his server into the sacristy
after the celebration of Mass, and passing his hand
through the offending locks, said to him : " Since you
have not found a barber to clip you in orderly fashion,
I myself must needs perform that office as best I may."
Then he took the scissors, made the lad sit down, and
the operation was soon over. 1 Martin made no
resistance ; he only burst into tears ; but it was not for
the loss of his hair. In that moment, he had received,
and responded to, a call to perfection. He threw
himself at the Bishop's feet, and said : " My Lord, I
beg of you, by God's mercy, to listen to me. Since
your Holiness has, with your own hand, deprived my
head of the sign of vanity, I beseech you to finish the
good work you have begun, and help me to forsake all
the snares of the world ; I wish to be a monk. It is
your act which has inspired me with this holy desire.
From this moment, I consecrate myself entirely to God,
and renounce all the pomps and vain joys of worldly
men. Do you who have obtained this grace for me,
help me to be faithful to it until death."

St. Hugh wished to put this sudden vocation to the
proof. He made no answer, and as the dinner-hour
had arrived, he sat down to table as usual. The poor
sacristan could take no food, and thought only of how
to obtain his desire, which grew stronger and stronger.
When the guests separated, he threw himself at the
feet of those whom he thought likely to plead for him.

1 It will be noticed from the seventh of the canons published by
St. Hugh (cited above, p. 327), that clerics had two distinct rules to observe
with regard to their hair. First, they were not to allow it to grow long, as
was the custom with seculars in that age, and secondly, they were bound
to wear the corona, or tonsure. In acting as barber to his sacristan,
St. Hugh, it may be remarked, was simply interpreting literally a decree of
the Council of Westminster (of 1175) which professed to re-enact a canon
of the Council of Agatho, in the sixth century. " Clerics," so runs the
ordinance, " who let their hair grow, must be shorn by the archdeacon,
even against their will." (Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 74.) [Eo.]

420 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

But although their prayers were united to his own, the
holy Bishop still postponed his answer. Three days
was Martin kept in suspense, as a punishment for his
previous delay in obeying. At the end of that time,
St. Hugh, being convinced of his sincerity, received
him with the greatest kindness, and did all in
his power to help him. He sent for the Prior of
St. Neot's, a foundation dependent upon the Abbey of
Bee, and obtained for Martin the coveted privilege
of admission into the Novitiate.

St. Hugh never lost sight of his former sacristan.
He gave him the religious habit, assisted at his
profession, defraying the cost of a feast on that
occasion, admitted him to subdeacon's orders, and
sent him to Bee, that he might be more thoroughly
instructed in all the observances of his Order. \Ve
learn from St. Hugh's biographer, who himself heard it
from the Abbot and community of Bee, that Martin
was in every way a credit to his patron, and was looked
upon as a model of stability and virtue.

NOTE TO BOOK III. CHAPTER XI.

It is difficult to believe that the author of the
Vita has preserved quite a faithful account of the
opinion expressed by the justices upon St. Hugh's
doctrine of sanctuary. Certainly the contention was
one which would have made the great lawyer Bracton,
who flourished forty years later, open his eyes in
astonishment. Bracton has treated the question of
sanctuary with considerable fulness. In his pages the
privilege appears not only as purely local, but as one
which by no means allowed an offender to get off scot-
free. The criminal who gained a consecrated church
could not be forcibly dragged out by the officers of

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 421

justice ; but on the other hand, it was the duty of the
four neighbouring villages to surround the place to
prevent his escape, and to send for a coroner. The
coroner came and parleyed with the refugee, who then
had to make choice between two alternatives : either
to submit to trial, or to "abjure the realm." If he
preferred the latter course, he chose or was assigned
some definite port, and thither he had to make his way
within a certain limit of time, travelling barefoot and
bareheaded, in the garb of a penitent, with a white cross
in his hand. There, as soon as he could find a ship to
take him, he quitted England, binding himself by oath
never to return. All his property was confiscated, and if
he broke his oath and came back, his fate was that of an
outlaw. Supposing that the criminal claiming sanctuary
would neither submit to trial nor abjure the realm, then
the Bishop or parish priest had the right of ejecting
him forcibly from the church, but as this violence was
not looked upon with favour, Bracton suggests that
after forty days the criminal should be starved into
submission. 1

The plea set up by St. Hugh contradicts the teaching
of Bracton in two most important particulars. In the
first place he considers the privilege of sanctuary as
attaching both to the precincts of the consecrated
church, and also to the person of the Bishop ; and
secondly, he applies it not only to the fugitive whose
guilt has not been legally attested, but to the criminal
already tried and sentenced. A prisoner already con-
victed, according to Bracton, 2 ought not to be allowed
the benefit of sanctuary. Still the lawyer is evidently
puzzled by the problem presented if even a convicted

1 Bracton, De Legibus Anglice, Edit. Twiss, vol. ii. pp. 392 396 ;
Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, vol. ii. p. 588 ; A. Reville,
" L'Abjuratio Regni," Revue Historique, September, 1892, pp. i 42.

' P- 395-

422 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

criminal, having gained the church, will not leave, and
the Bishop will not consent to starve him out.

On the other hand, St. Hugh's contention may be
considered to derive some sort of vague support from
a section in the so-called Laws of Edward the Confessor.
There is nothing whatever to connect this miniature
code with the Sovereign whose name it bears, but
in the time of Roger Hoveden, St. Hugh's contem-
temporary, it was believed that William the Conqueror
made inquiry into the customs which obtained in
England before his coming, and drew up these laws as
the result of his investigations. Now this code, besides
making in its first section a strong assertion of the
personal immunity of ecclesiastics, chrici . . . pacem Dei
ct sancta ecclesice habeant, which extends to all their
property and possessions ; proceeds in cap. v. to define
the right of sanctuary in the following terms : " When-
ever any suspect or criminal takes refuge in a church
for safety's sake, let him on no account be seized by
any pursuer from the moment he has gained the
entrance of the church, unless it be by the Bishop or
his minister."

And this is further extended by the clause which
follows : " And if in his flight he (the criminal) enter
the house of a priest or his court (curia], let him enjoy
the same peace and security which he would have
enjoyed in a church, providing always that the house
or court of the priest be situated upon the domain
(feodo or fund o) of the church." 1

The fact seems to be, that there was a deep but
rather ill defined sentiment in the heart of the people,
that the peace of God surrounded as a sort of
atmosphere or halo, the persons of those specially con-
secrated to His service. The sentiment was not even
exclusively Christian, for the vestal virgins in pagan

i Schmifl, />/f (n^ct~c der AngclsadncH, p. 493.

PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS. 423

Rome had the acknowledged right of obtaining the
pardon of any criminal whom they accidentally met on
his way to execution. Among the Celtic races the right
of sanctuary was so respected, that King Meirchion,
according to the legend, dared not drag a hunted stag
from the feet of St. Illtyd, where it had sought safety.
This is suggestive of a personal rather than a merely
local privilege, and the same feature may be recognized
in several other early stories of Irish origin. 1 So too
there are a good many mediaeval examples of this sort
of protection attaching to the person of Bishops or
Abbots. I may content myself here with referring to
perhaps the most famous instance, that of the rescue of
a criminal on his way to execution by the great St.
Bernard. The Saint begged that the prisoner might be
surrendered to him. To which the officers replied that
the man deserved no mercy. Then St. Bernard declared
it was far from his intention that he should go unscathed,
on the contrary, that the law provided a punishment
much too lenient. "I," he said, "will make him live
long years, and crucify him every day." St. Bernard
fulfilled his promise, for the poor criminal's heart was
touched, and he spent the rest of his life as a monk of
Clairvaux.

Beyond this somewhat vague testimony of tradition,
I do not know of any direct warrant for the Bishop
of Lincoln's claim to rescue prisoners. 2 It would not
be wise, however, to speak too positively, for St. Hugh
seems to have been a most diligent student of ecclesi-

1 See Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. ii. p. 65.

2 Perhaps the nearest approach to a parallel case is the right of sanc-
tuary recognized by some mediaeval authorities as attaching to a priest
when carrying the Blessed Sacrament. This right was confirmed in the
Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII. (1438) in the following terms : " Con-
fugiens ad Christi Corpus dum portatur in via gaudet immunitate," &c.
Cf., on the whole subject, Thomassinus, Vetus Ecclesice Disciplina,
especially ii. 3, 99, and 100.

4 2 4 PROVIDENTIAL CONSOLATIONS.

astical law. It is remarkable that in many of the
actions of his life in which he seemed to be guilty of
singularity, he was in reality only carrying out the
canons which other men were bound by but neglected.
His opposition, for instance, to the employment of
clerics in secular functions, illustrated in the present
chapter by his horror at the idea of being mistaken for
a Baron of the Exchequer, was justified and no doubt
inspired by the repeated Papal denunciations of him who,
"being a soldier to God, entangleth himself in secular
business." 1 So his refusal to bestow the usual honora-
rium upon the Archdeacon of Canterbury, who en-
throned him, must, no doubt, find its explanation in
the very emphatic prohibition of such fees in another
pronouncement of Alexander III., Cum in ecclesia corpore.-
The countenance lent by the Council of Westminster
to his act in forcibly cutting his sacristan's hair, has
already been pointed out in a foot-note. [Eo.]

1 2 Timothy ii. 4, quoted in a decree of Alexander III., Clcrici in
subdiaconatu. See Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 188 ; Benedict, i. p. 236. This
became section 12 of the canons of the Third Council of Lateran.
Numerous decrees of similar import might be cited from earlier centuries.
Of the enactments belonging to this period, I may refer to the Council of
Westminster (1175) canon^, and the Council of Rouen (1190) canons 9
and 10.

* Hoveden, vol. ii. p. 174 ; Benedict, i. p. 225.

CHAPTER XII.
DEATH OF RICHARD I.

HUGH arrived in Normandy a few days after Septua-
gesima Sunday, in February, 1199. He. there found
the Papal Legate, Peter of Capua, who had just
succeeded in concluding a five years' truce between
England and France. This was a fortunate opportunity
for him to plead his cause with the representative of
Innocent III. And the Legate, on his part, was glad
of the information which St. Hugh could give of the
condition of the Church in England. Two or three
weeks were spent in these conferences, and we regret
that no record of them has come down to us.

When Lent had well begun, the Bishop of Lincoln
repaired to Angers, and received hospitality in a manor-
house belonging to the Abbey of St. Nicholas, on the
River Brionneau, near that town. 1 St. Hugh waited
there for a favourable opportunity of getting an audience
with the King, who had just then begun a new
campaign against some of his rebellious barons.
During his stay at the manor-house, St. Hugh was

1 The important priory of Spalding in Lincolnshire was a cell of the
Abbey of St. Nicholas at Angers. It is easy, therefore, to understand
that the monks of St. Nicholas would be very willing to show hospitality
to the Bishop of the diocese in which such a considerable dependency of
theirs was situated. In the very next year we have a charter of King John
dated April 2ist, confirming the priory and possessions of Spalding to the
monks of Angers. It is probable that such a document would not have
been executed without some reference to St. Hugh, though his name does
not occur among the witnesses.

426 DEATH OF RICHARD I

invited by some Grandmontese monks to conduct the
ordinations in their monastery, at no great distance
from Angers. 1 He willingly acceded to their request ;
hut he manifested a strange reluctance to ordain one
particular candidate who presented himself to receive
the subdiaconate on that occasion. There was nothing
apparently against his being admitted to Orders. The
Bishop himself knew the young man, who was also
highly recommended by the Archdeacon of Oxford,
Walter Map. Nevertheless, St. Hugh persisted in his
refusal to ordain him, and even showed a certain irrita-
tion at being pressed to do so, which much astonished
his own chaplains. But a very short time afterwards
his conduct on this occasion was fully explained. The
poor young cleric was attacked by leprosy. Then it
was understood that the man of God had foreseen the
sad calamity, and had had good reason for refusing
Holy Orders to one whose affliction would have unfitted
him for the duties of the ministry. In spite of his own
tender affection for lepers, and his loving care of them,
Hugh was penetrated with the idea that those set apart
for the service of Almighty God should be free from
blemish, not only in soul, but, if possible, in body also.
God, who reveals or conceals trie future from His
servants, according to His own wise counsels, had not
yet enlightened the Saint as to the final outcome of his
conflict with the King. And now alarming rumours
began to spread consternation amongst those who
surrounded him. It was said that the King was so
infuriated that he was determined to inflict a pitiless
vengeance on all his enemies, counting amongst their
number the Bishop of Lincoln and all his clergy. This
might, of course, prove to be mere gossip, but the
sanguinary war he was then waging against Ademar,

1 It was at la Haye-des-Bonshommes, near the forest of Craon, in the
parish of Avrille.

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 427

Viscount of Limoges, seemed to confirm the sinister
tidings. Ademar, who was a vassal of the King of
England, had lately discovered a considerable treasure,
and had sent a part of it only to his Sovereign. Richard
claimed the whole, and when it was refused to him,
came to take it by force of arms. He laid siege to the
Castle of Chalus-Chabrol, where, as he imagined, the
treasure was concealed.

Such is the account of Roger Hoveden, which is
reproduced by the greater number of historians. But
the Abbe Arbellot, author of a paper called La Verite
stir la Mort de Richard Cceur de Lion, 1 contends that this
war had a more honourable cause. The King of England
had given some offence to Ademar of Limoges, and his
brother, the Comte de Perigord, whereupon both noble-
men, by way of revenge, had tendered allegiance to the
King of France. Therefore they were, it is urged, in
actual rebellion against their lawful Sovereign, when he
declared war against them.

We are told that the garrison of Chalus wished to
surrender on condition of being allowed to escape with
their lives, but that the King told them to prepare for
the worst, as he intended to take the castle by storm,
and hang all the defenders. If this circumstance is
true, it certainly shows that Richard's exasperation
was extreme.

St. Hugh had now to defend himself against the
discouragement and pusillanimity of his own clergy,
who were not only in terror of the King's vengeance,
but were furthermore discontented and inclined to sulk
at the difficulties raised against the promotion of one of
their number to a bishopric. This was Walter Map,
Archdeacon of Oxford, 2 who had been proposed as a

1 Paris : Haton, 1878.

2 As Walter Map, who was precentor, chancellor, and afterwards arch-
deacon in the diocese of Lincoln, seems to have lived on more or less

428 DEATH OF RICHARD I.

candidate for the see of Hereford. The principal
canons of Hereford had just arrived in Angers, to seek
an interview with the King, but it was easy to foresee
that any canon or archdeacon from the diocese of
Lincoln could expect no favourable reception from
Richard, until their Bishop had made his submission.

All this, of course, tended to make the canons of
Lincoln very dissatisfied with the uncompromising
attitude of St. Hugh. They determined to try if the
force of numbers could shake his resolution, and to that
end an understanding was come to amongst them which
included not only the Bishop's own clergy, but the
canons of Hereford as well, and with them several
prebendaries of Angers, the Dean of the Chapter at
their head. One day, in the middle of Lent, all these
distinguished ecclesiastics attacked St. Hugh together,
and exhausted their eloquence in trying to persuade the
Saint to follow the oft-repeated advice given by the
Archbishop of Canterbury? namely, to send a messenger
to the King with a large sum of money. " By this
means," they said, "you will free yourself from any
further care or trouble, and you will be able to return
to your diocese immediately. Reflect, that there is no
time to be lost. All the provinces here are experiencing
the horrors of war ; the people are terrified ; every town
and every village is under the influence of panic. There

intimate terms with St. Hugh, it is worth while to point out that nothing can
be more uncertain than the authorship of much of the literary work commonly
attributed to him. It is no doubt true that he allowed himself a good deal
of freedom in his criticisms of men and things, inveighing especially against
the monks with much bitterness this we may learn from his undisputed
work, the De Nugis Curia Hum, and from Giraldus. But we may acquit
him of any connection with the scurrilous and ribald verse which has been
fathered upon him. The famous drinking-song, in particular, Meum est
propositum in taberna mori, though this perhaps is less open to objection
than some others amongst his supposed works, has no claim to be known as
hK See Mr. H. L. Ward's Catalogue of Romances in the British Museum,
and the article on Map in the Dictionary of National Hiography. [ED.]

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 429

is no place of safety to be found anywhere, either in the
cities or in the country. Very soon, it will be folly to
remain here ; and yet we shall no longer have it in our
power to depart even if we wish to."

One after another the canons strove to paint the
gloomy outlook to their Bishop in the most sombre
colours. They continued their entreaties from earl}/
morning till late into the evening. The torment in-
flicted on holy Job by his well-meaning but vexatious
friends, could hardly have been greater than that
experienced by our Saint, who was not only sensitive
by nature, but sincerely attached to his clergy. Torn
asunder, as it were, between the dread of making con-
cessions of which his conscience disapproved, and the
necessity of grieving so many beloved and honoured
friends, he seems to have endured a martyrdom.
Nevertheless, he persevered in upholding the cause of
ecclesiastical liberty, and tried to persuade those who
differed from him that it wastheir duty also to support
it. "Your reasons," he said, "are no reasons. To
act as you are advising me to act, would be not to save
our cause, but to lose it, and to lose it with dishonour,
for we should cast the dignity and liberty of the Church
under the feet of the secular power, without obtaining
in the end the peace which we desire. If to-day we
purchase this peace at an exorbitant price, we shall
find it broken to-morrow, and we shall have to begin
all our work over again."

The party in favour of concession, emboldened by
its numbers, and by the circumstances of the case, was
determined to prevail. The canons continued their
arguments and entreaties, until the soul of St. Hugh
was filled with bitterness. Never before .had he been
so completely abandoned by those whom he specially
loved and trusted. If he had been contending with
courtiers or even with Kings, he would have known

430 DEATH OF RICHARD I.

how to reply, and would have silenced them with
peremptory answers. But he could not readily resign
himself to a serious rupture with old and tried friends,
and yet he saw them hopelessly obstinate in opposing
their judgment to his own. Contrary to his wont, he
determined to give them no final answer that evening,
and he said to them at last, completely wearied out : ** My
brothers, that is enough for to-day; to-morrow morning,
with the help of God, we will together make that
decision which will be most for His glory. \Ye know
by experience that the silence of the night is a good
counsellor."

When at length he found himself alone with one
faithful friend, he confessed that he had never gone
through such a time of anguish. He threw himself on
his knees to pray : for there is no other remedy so
effectual as prayer for this agony of the soul ; and our
Divine Lord knew this, when He left us the example
of His prayer in Gethsamane. Hugh then besought
God to put an end to his perplexities, and to show him
how he could act without scandalizing his friends or
being too obstinate, and yet without failing in his duty
to God and the Church. Here was his great difficulty.
He had often triumphed in the past, but it seemed to
him that this case was quite different, and he knew
not how to decide. He lay down to rest, still full of
these thoughts and bereft for once of the peace of soul
he habitually enjoyed. Sleep came to his eyes at last,
and in his sleep a miraculous dream was sent to
console and guide him. He heard a heavenly voice,
which repeated the words of the Psalmist : " God is
wonderful in His saints; the God of Israel is He who
will give power and strength to His people. Blessed
be God." 1

He awoke, and rose at once in perfect peace. His

1 Psulin Ixvii. 36.

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 431

doubts and fears were gone. As soon as he could find
his chaplain, he came to confess his fault of the evening
before. He accused himself, with deep grief, of want
of trust in God, and of not having at once silenced the
unworthy proposals which had been made to him. " I
hope," he added, "that God will be merciful to me, a
penitent sinner, and that He will still help me to do
His will and fight His battles to the last."

The next morning his friends did not appear : pro-
bably, they began to understand what pain they had
been giving him, and how useless their remonstrances
had been. A few more days went by, and St. Hugh
received a visit from the Abbess Matilda of Fontevrault,
who came to give him secret information of the most
serious importance. The King was lying grievously
wounded, and appeared to be drawing near his end. 1

This was what had taken place. On the 26th of
March, probably the very day on which the Saint had
gone through a time of such intense anguish, Richard,
accompanied by Marchadeus, was riding round the walls
of the Castle of Chalus to determine what point in the
defences seemed most practicable for an assault. As
he advanced, with careless daring, close to the besieged
fortress, he was struck by an arrow which pierced his
left shoulder. In a fit of passion, he ordered the attack

1 As soon as the King of England was aware of his danger, he sent to
tell his mother, Queen Eleanor, who was then at the Abbey of Fontevrault.
She set out at once for the bed-side of her son, without telling any one but
the Abbess the reason of her journey. Matilda III., Abbess of Fontevrault,
thus informed of the news which was otherwise to be kept secret, and
knowing also the grave situation of Hugh of Lincoln, hastened herself to
Angers, to acquaint him with what had taken place at Chalus. "It is
not absolutely certain," she said, "that the King will die, but it is very
probable." (Dom Paul Piolin, Voyage de St. Hugues, Eveque de Lincoln,
a travers I'Anjouet le Maine en I' annee ngq, p. 8. Angers, 1889.) It
was originally printed in the Revue de I'Anjou, vol. xix. This learned and
able work has been of great service in checking the topographical details of
the present and succeeding chapters.

432 DEATH OF RICHARD I.

to begin at once, and in a very short space of time the
castle was taken. The King ordered all the soldiers of
the garrison to be hanged, with the exception of the
archer who had wounded him, by name Peter Basil, 1
who, it seems, was reserved for a more cruel punish-
ment. But these acts of vengeance could not cure the
wound he had received, and its serious nature was
soon apparent. The head of the arrow remained in
the shoulder, and when the surgeons attempted to
draw it out, it broke. Mortification set in, and that
was equivalent to a sentence of death. Then the faith
of Richard of the Lion Heart revived. He made an
exact confession of all his sins to his chaplain, with full
consciousness and deep contrition. The chaplain was
Milo, the Cistercian Abbot of Notre Dame du Pin, in
the diocese of Poitiers. The King then sent for the
archer who had wounded him, and freely pardoned him,
ordering him to be set at liberty, and giving him a
present of a hundred shillings, that he might return to
his own country.- After this act of Christian generosity,
the King died on the 6th of April, being only forty-two
years of age. 3

1 There is a curious conflict of testimony as to the name of the man
who shot Richard Coeur de Lion. R. Uiceto, Wendover, and others call
him Peter Basil ; but Gervase calls him John Sabra/, and William le
Breton, Guy. Most English historians have followed Hoveden in naming
him Bertrand de Gourdon, but there are serious difficulties against this
view. See Norgate, England under the Angevin Kind's, ii. p. 385, note.
[ED.]

a Unfortunately, the savage M;irchadeus was present. Unknown to
the dying King, he ordered the wretched archer to be flayed alive and then
hanged. According to another account, the execution of this brutal sentence
was due to Jane, the sister of King Richard, and the wife of Raymond VI.
Count of Toulouse. \\Lu. \

3 Queen Eleanor, in a charter signed only a few days after the death of
her son, said that no one had more to do with his edifying end, than
Lucas, Abbot of Torpenay, of the Order of St. Benedict, in the diocese of
Tours. (Dom Paul Piolin, op. cit. p. 10.)

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 433

Yet he had lived too long for his renown, and one is
disposed to wish that the hero of the Third Crusade
had perished more nobly, and in a war more worthy of
his fame. God ordered it otherwise, but gave him the
grace of repentance before he died. If he had always
been faithful to the inspirations of faith and to the
counsels of St. Hugh, he would not merely have given
occasional glimpses of a noble and chivalrous nature,
but he, too, might have been distinguished by the
virtuous life, the devotion to the Church and to his
people, the unfailing benevolence, and the combination
of wise and good deeds, which were soon to shine forth
in the person of another King, as brave and fearless as
he St. Louis of France, the typical Christian hero of
the middle ages.

The Sieur de Joinville, the faithful friend and
chronicler of St. Louis, tells us that more than once in
Palestine, his royal master came upon the traces of
Richard of the Lion Heart, and on one particular
occasion was pleased to imitate his example. It was
a question whether * the saintly King should visit
Jerusalem as a simple pilgrim, seeing that he had not
been able to conquer it by force of arms. He was
told that when Richard of England was near the
Holy City, without any hope of being able to effect an
entrance there with his troops, one of his knights cried
out to him: "Sire, Sire, come here, and I will show
you the city of Jerusalem." But Richard, so ran the
story, at once held his shield before his eyes, and
bursting into tears, exclaimed: "O my Lord God!
suffer me riot to see Thy Holy City, since I am not
able to deliver it ! " 1 St. Louis himself could not have
spoken more beautiful and Christian words, and he felt
honoured in imitating the example of his English
precursor. This incident may well serve as our final

1 Joinville, Histoire de Saint Louis, ch. cviii.
CC

434 DEATH OF RICHARD I.

tribute to the memory of the famous English monarch,
while it helps to explain something of the sympathy
and admiration which still cling round his name. Such
noble sentiments and reverent deeds may plead the
sinner's pardon, especially when they are ratified and
confirmed in the moment of the soul's last return to
God.

As soon as the news of the King's death was
brought to St. Hugh, he set out for Angers, where,
in default of the Bishop, William of Chemille, 1 he
had been invited by the Chapter to officiate on Palm
Sunday. He was there met by an ecclesiastic, named
Gilbert de Lacy, 2 who announced to him that Richard
was to be buried at Fontevrault on the next day.
St. Hugh drew a deep sigh, and immediately expressed
his wish to assist at the funeral. His attendants tried
to induce him to relinquish this idea, as the country
was in a most dangerous state, ever since the news of
the King's death had been made public. Brigands and
highway robbers infested the roads, and travellers of all
ranks were pillaged and ill-treated. 3 But St. Hugh was
not to be turned from his purpose by the fear of any

1 It does not seem clear that William of Chemill6 had yet been released
from the sentence of suspension pronounced against him by order of
Innocent III. for resigning his diocese of Avranches, and accepting that
of Angers without reference to the Holy See. [Eo.]

2 We can hardly be wrong in conjecturing that this Gilbert de Lacy
must have been a member of the distinguished Norman family of de Lacys,
who played so conspicuous a part in the early days of the English occupa-
tion of Ireland. There is mention of a Gilbert de Lacy in the Rolls of
the Norman Exchequer who was tenant of a fief in Normandy. (Stapleton,
ii. p. Ixxi. ) This Gilbert, however, in 1215, had a son old enough to be
hostage for his uncle Walter. As the Gilbert here mentioned is only
described as a cleric, he may possibly have given up the idea of becoming
a priest and married. Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester and Governor
of the Chateau Gaillard, was a comparatively distant connection. [Eo.]

3 We learn from the iVfdgtiti I it<i that some of his servants who had
come bringing him money from England, had been stopped by the brigands
and robbed of forty marks.

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 435

such dangers. " Nothing shall prevent me," he said,
"from rendering the last duties to my Sovereign. The
robbers may take all that I have, but unless they tie
my feet together, they will not hinder me from going to
Fontevrault."

He left most of his people at Angers, and set out,
with scarcely any luggage, attended only by one cleric,
one monk, 1 and a few servants. As he drew near the
Castle of Beaufort, he was told that the widowed
Queen Berengaria was living there. He left the high-
road, and travelled through the forest, to pay her a
visit, and offer her the sympathy and consolation she
sorely needed. The virtuous Queen was overwhelmed
with grief, but the words of St. Hugh were as healing
balm to her troubled soul. 2 From him she learned how
to bear her sorrow in patience, and to rejoice over her
husband's repentance and reconciliation with God.
St. Hugh celebrated Mass in her presence, and gave
her a solemn benediction. He then proceeded on his
journey, and arrived on the same day at Saumur, where
the people met him, singing litanies, and showing him
every mark of veneration. He rested that night at the
house of Gilbert de Lacy, the ecclesiastic who had
announced the King's death to him, and who was
pursuing his studies in the town.

On the next day, which was Palm Sunday, he
arrived at Fontevrault just as the funeral ceremonies
were beginning. He met the coffin of King Richard at
the entrance door of the abbey church, and himself
officiated at the Solemn Requiem and the burial service
which followed. The mortal remains of the King were

1 The monk must have been the Saint's chaplain, Adam, the author of
the Magna Vita. [ED.]

2 This reference to Queen Berengaria in the Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 10,
is almost the only information we have of the manner of life of this sorely-
tried lady in her later years.

436 DEATH OF RICHARD I.

laid to rest, with the honour due to his rank, by the
side of his father, Henry II. As the holy Bishop of
Lincoln looked upon the last resting-place of these, two
monarchs, he must have felt happy that his conscience
had nothing to reproach him with in his conduct
towards either. He had neither weakly yielded nor
stubbornly opposed. He had been to each of them all
that a Bishop should be to a temporal Sovereign
a wise counsellor, always ready to speak the truth to
ears too much accustomed to the flattery of courtiers ;
a resolute champion of the Church, ready at all times
to defend her rights against the encroachments of the
secular power. And in defending the Church, he had
been a true friend to the State and the monarchy
also, for neither can become a persecutor of religion
without attacking the principles of all dependence and
undermining its own authority.

After the funeral, St. Hugh returned to Saumur,
where he spent a few days, being entertained by his
host, Gilbert de Lacy, with much kindness and con-
sideration. But on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes-
day of Holy Week, he again visited the Abbey of
Fontevrault, to offer Mass each day, and recite the
Office of the Dead for the Holy Souls and especially
for the two monarchs he had served so faithfully. The
thought of death which was at all times so familiar to
him, must have come home with redoubled force beside
the mortal remains of these two great Kings during
that week consecrated to the memory of our Lord's
sacred Passion. Who could avoid being impressed
there with the vanity of all that this life has to offer, or
fail to carry away a deeper sense of the eternal peace
which succeeds the turmoil and the suffering of our
efforts here below ?

With the reign of Richard I. terminated the more
stormy period of the life of our Saint. For ten years

DEATH OF RICHARD I. 437

he had fought the battles of the Church, and had
remained the victor in every field. But his life was
now drawing to a close, and in the comparative tran-
quillity of those last days we shall find him renewing
the peaceful memories of his youth.

BOOK IV.

THE GLORY OF THE SAINT, BEFORE AND AFTER
HIS DEATH.

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

THE successor of Richard I. was his brother John,
surnamed Lackland, to the exclusion of his nephew,
Arthur, Duke of Brittany, who was the son of Richard's
elder brother Geoffrey. According to details given by
St. Hugh's chaplain, which are very valuable for the
light they throw upon this period of English history,
Prince John,., having been accused by Richard of
forming an alliance with the King of France, had
therefore been deprived of his possessions ; and at
the time of Richard's death, was staying with the
Duke of Brittany. But Richard must have changed
his mind with regard to his brother, for before he died,
he declared John his successor. John immediately
hastened to Chinon, where the royal treasury was,
accompanied by a few of his friends, and there, on the
Wednesday in Holy Week, April i4th, 1199, he was
proclaimed King by Robert of Turnham x and several
other English nobles, who did homage to him as their
Sovereign. John then took a solemn oath to carry out

1 Robert de Turnham, the brother of the Stephen mentioned above,
P- 393. as having been charged by Richard to execute the decree of con-
fiscation pronounced against St. Hugh, was the custodian of the royal
treasure in Normandy at the time of Cceur de Lion's death, and surrendered
this and the royal castles into the hands of John. Both Stephen and
Robert de Turnham were present at the Homage of the King of Scots at
Lincoln in November, 1200, and presumably at the funeral of St, Hugh
which took place on the following day, [Eo,J

442 THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

the wishes of Richard, in all fidelity, and to respect the
ancient laws and customs of the people he was about
to govern. He was aware that his promises would not
be very readily believed by those who had watched his
conduct in the past, and it was part of his policy to
give a sort of pledge of better behaviour by securing the
countenance of the holy Bishop of Lincoln.

St. Hugh was at Saumur, preparing for his return
to England, when he received a message from John,
begging to be honoured with a visit from him, as soon
as possible. St. Hugh at once set out, and as he drew
near Chinon, he saw the Prince coming to meet him.
The Prince professed to be overjoyed at his arrival,
dismounted from his horse, and advanced alone and
unattended, to welcome the Bishop. Every mark of
honour and veneration was lavished upon him, and he
begged St. Hugh not to leave him again, until they
could return together to England. Hugh excused
himself for not being able to accept this invitation, but
consented to accompany the Prince to Fontevrault and
to Saumur.

The visit which John now made to the tombs of his
father and brother at Fontevrault, furnished the Saint
with an excellent opportunity for giving him a useful
lesson. As they were travelling towards the abbey,
St. Hugh, who perhaps thought the admonition needed,
took occasion to speak earnestly of the piety towards
God, and of the mercy and justice towards all the
world, which ought to distinguish a Christian King.
John assured him that he was ready to follow the Bishop's
advice in all things, that he looked upon him as his
Father and Master, and would be guided entirely by
his direction. How far any momentary flicker of
sincerity may have been at the bottom of these
professions it is impossible to say, but by way of
showing that he wished to have no secrets from his

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. 443

new guide, it would seem that John drew from the
folds of his robe, a stone set in gold, which he wore
round his neck. It was for him a sort of talisman, as
he proceeded to explain. " This stone," he said, " was
given to one of my ancestors with the assurance that
he and his descendants should never be deprived of
their dominions, as long as they retained possession of
it." " Take care," said St. Hugh, " not to put your
trust in any material stone. Lean solely upon the
living and heavenly Stone, which is our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let your heart be anchored upon that sure
rock and upon that alone. Remember that it is a
Stone which can crush those who resist it, as well as
support those who base their hope thereon."

When at length they arrived at Fontevrault, the
nuns gave the Prince a reception, well calculated to
confirm any salutary impression he might have received
during his conversation with St. Hugh. Surrounded
by a brilliant train, he entered the abbey church, and
knocked at the door of the choir, which was reserved
for the Religious. He asked leave to enter, that he
might visit the royal tombs, and recommend himself to
the prayers of the community. On this two grave
Sisters presented themselves, and told him that no one
whatever was allowed to enter the enclosure save in the
presence of the Abbess, who was then away from home.
" Your Excellency," they continued, " will have to await
her return, which will not be long delayed. Do not, we
beg of you, be offended at our refusal to break our
rules. Your illustrious father, upon whose soul may
God have mercy, has set you the example of showing
especial esteem for those religious communities who
have always been faithful to the intentions of their
founders." After this firm and dignified reply, these
prudent virgins retired, shutting the door of the choir
behind them,

444 THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

John then had recourse to the Bishop of Lincoln,
and begged him to ask the prayers of the servants of
Jesus Christ, and to inform them of various grants and
concessions which he intended to make in their behalf.
"You know," said the Saint, "that I have the greatest
horror of anything that is not true. I must refuse to
tell them anything of your promises, unless you really
are resolved to keep them." Then the Prince swore
to be faithful to his word, and said that he would also
add new benefits to those he had already promised.
St. Hugh accordingly repeated all this to the nuns,
and begged them to commend the reign which was
beginning to the protection of Almighty God. Then
giving his blessing to all, he withdrew in company with
the Prince. As they passed together through the porch
of the church, the Bishop stopped John, and called his
attention to a series of carved stone figures forming
part of a representation of the Last Judgment. 1 " The
church porch," he said, " is a good place to choose for
such a subject. It is well to remind those who enter
that they have need to implore God's pardon for their
sins. Prayer is the best means to escape His judgments
and to gain Heaven." Then, as he wished him to apply
this lesson particularly to himself, he took him by the
hand, and showed him that there were kings, in all the
insignia of their rank, ranged amongst the reprobate
on the left hand of the Supreme Judge. " Think of
this," he continued, " and let the eternal punishment
which is reserved for wicked kings, be constantly in
your remembrance. Reflect upon the misery of those
who being called upon to govern others, neglect to

1 It would seem that no trace of these sculptures now remains. At
least I can find no mention of them in the elaborate work on Fontevrault
by the Abb6 Edouard. But groups of carved figures similar to that
described in the text are not rare. There is a Last Judgment of this kind
in the Cathedral of Amiens. [Eo.J

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN, 445

govern themselves, and so become the slaves of demons.
It is impossible to dread such a terrible fate too much ;
we can only avoid it, by fearing it always."

Then, in his turn, the Prince took the Bishop's hand,
and led him to the opposite wall, where, ornamented
with crowns of glory, were to be seen other kings in the
number of the elect, conducted by angels to the joys of
Paradise. " My Lord Bishop," he said, " these are
the kings whom you should have shown to me. It is
their example I intend to follow, that I may one day
share their company for all eternity."

There is something rather sickening about all
these professions when viewed in the light of John's
previous and subsequent conduct. St. Hugh's chaplain,
writing his account of this episode, as he tells us inci-
dentally, fourteen years later, while England still lay
under the ban of interdict, breaks out into an indignant
apostrophe of the faithless monarch. " Before the eyes
of all the world," he complains, "there is verified of
him the saying of Scripture : ' The wicked man when
he cometh to the depth of sin contemneth.' 1 Though
he has wrought every evil against God and his neigh-
bour, against clergy and people, he despises the judg-
ments of God, and heeds not the retribution which ere
long must surely wait upon his misdeeds." 2 Even as it
was, amid the hypocritical affectations of that first week,
by which he sought to conciliate all who might prove
dangerous opponents to his rather dubious title, John
overacted his part. If a beggar by the wayside wished
him good-luck the Prince bent his body, bowed his
head low, and effusively spoke his thanks. Not a
ragged old woman curtsied to him but he returned her

1 Proverbs xviii. 3.

2 Magna Vita, p. 291. The passage was probably written towards the
end of 1212. The interdict was not finally removed until June 1213.
[ED.]

446 THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

salutation most graciously. 1 It is Hugh's chaplain,
who was then constantly present at his side, who tells
us these things. But with a man like John, utterly
unaccustomed as he was to discipline or self-control,
such manners could not last not even for a single
week. It may be that by that time the new King had
sufficiently felt the pulse of those around him to be
satisfied that his position was tolerably secure, or it
may be that the reaction from this unwonted and un-
congenial self-restraint produced an explosion, but
certain it is that on Easter morning, when the late
King had just been seven days buried, John revealed
himself at last in his true colours, and finally convinced
the good Bishop of Lincoln that all the virtuous pro-
fessions which preceded had been nothing more than a
mask of hypocrisy. 2

It was in the church at Beaufort that he kept the
solemn feast, by assisting at the Pontifical Mass of
the Bishop of Lincoln. When the time of the Offertory
came, the Prince received from his chamberlain,
according to custom, twelve pieces of gold, which he
was to offer to the Prelate. He advanced to the altar,
surrounded by his attendants, but instead of respect-
fully presenting his offering, and kissing the Bishop's
hand, as the usual ceremony prescribed, he stopped in
front of him and stood examining the coins, rattling
them about in his hand. Soon every one in the church
was staring at him in astonishment. St. Hugh, indig-
nant at such behaviour, said to John : " What are you
looking at like that ? " " I," replied the Prince, " I
am looking at these pieces of gold, and I am thinking
that if I had had them a few days ago, I should not be

i " Occurrentibus sibi mendicis et fausta imprecantibus corpore incur-
vato et capita altius demisso gratias diligenter referebat : salutantes se
pannosas etiam aniculas mitissime resalutabat. " (Magna Vita, ibid.)

3 The text of the French original has not been adhered to in the fore-
going paragraph. [Eu.J

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. 447

offering them to you to-day, but should have kept them
in my purse. However, here they are : take them."
The speech was grossly insulting, and St. Hugh felt
it deeply. His cheek reddened, but it was not so much
for himself as for the man who was so lost to all sense
of reverence and propriety. Drawing back in indigna-
tion, he would not now touch the gold, nor allow John
to kiss his hand. " Put what you have into that plate,"
he said, with dignity, "and retire." The Prince obeyed.
The silver dish, intended for ordinary offerings, received
the gift so ungraciously proffered. But neither the
Bishop, nor any of his people, would touch it. He had
in fact made it a general rule, both for his chaplains
and for himself, never to accept anything in the strange
churches in which he chanced to officiate.

After this incident, he began to preach the Word
of God to the congregation who filled the church. He
gave a long discourse on the conduct of good and bad
princes, and of the rewards and punishments they
would meet with. The people, who listened to him with
rapt attention, expressed their admiration even audibly.
Not so Prince John : the length of the sermon and its
subject were equally distasteful to him ; and besides,
he was fasting, and was impatient for the dinner-hour.
Three times he sent to beg the Bishop to finish his
sermon and proceed with the Holy Sacrifice. St. Hugh
paid no attention to these admonitions, and would not
leave the pulpit without preparing his hearers for the
Paschal Communion they were going to receive from
his hands. His fervent eloquence caused man}' of those
present to shed tears, and stirred the devotion of all
except the Prince, who did not receive Communion,
either on that solemn day, nor even on the day of his
coronation and anointing. 1

1 Some persons, who had always been in his service, declared that he
had never received Holy Communion since he came to years of discretion.
(Magna Vita t bk. v. ch. 2.)

448 THE BEGISS1SG OF THE REIGN OF A7.VG JOHX.

On Easter Monday St. Hugh took leave of John
Lackland. If he had cherished any illusions regarding
the new King during the preceding week, they had all
disappeared, and the outlook seemed to him more
gloomy than ever. He could look for nothing from
such a Sovereign as this, beyond a truce of longer or
shorter duration, according to calculations of policy,
and he foresaw that a very few years would bring the
Church in England face to face with a new and terrible
persecution. He still hoped to be able to do something
to defer the crisis as long as possible, but that could not
be much, and from this moment his most ardent longings
were directed towards his heavenly home, which he felt
was not far from him now. In the meantime he was
longing to return to his diocese, to do all the good he
could before death came to set him free.

He set out on his journey, therefore, accompanied
by Gilbert Glanville, Bishop of Rochester, and many
other ecclesiastics from various dioceses. Although
they formed a numerous party, the expedition was not
without danger. The country they had to traverse was
far from being entirely submissive to the rule of John,
and young Arthur of Brittany, at his mother's instiga-
tion, had come to rally partisans to his standard.
St. Hugh, always full of trust in God, arrived at
La Fleche on the igth of April, and at once went to
the church to say Mass. He had not yet vested, when
his servants ran up to him in great agitation. They
told him that the magistrates of the town had taken
forcible possession of his vehicles, and that thieves had
stolen several of his baggage animals. The Bishop of
Rochester and the rest of the clergy present begged
him, under the circumstances, not to attempt to say
Mass, but to content himself with hearing a Gospel
read, and then to see what they could do to rescue
themselves from their critical position. Hugh was

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. 449

absolutely deaf to their remonstrances, and persisted in
going to the altar. He would not even be satisfied
with a Low Mass, but was bent on celebrating pontifi-
cally, with all solemnity. He put on the sandals, the
tunic, the dalmatic, and all the other episcopal vest-
ments, and offered the Holy Sacrifice with the greatest
reverence and devotion, confident that he could find no
more efficacious remedy than this. Finally, when .all
the appointed ceremonies were finished, he withdrew
and took off his vestments. No sooner had he ended
than the magistrates of the town came to him with
profuse and humble apologies for what had happened.
They implored his forgiveness, promising him every
security if he would pass the night at La Fleche, and
offering an escort, if he preferred to continue his
journey. The Bishop made them a gracious answer,
accepted the escort, and immediately set out, arriving
in the evening at the Abbey of Couture, which was
situated on the outskirts of the town of Le Mans.

The next morning, April 2oth, at break of day,
while St. Hugh was reciting the Office of Matins, and
according to his custom, was having the longer form of
lessons read, 1 a great tumult was heard from the direction
of the ramparts. The young Duke of Brittany, Prince
Arthur, accompanied by his mother, Constance, was
besieging the town, hoping to seize the person of his
uncle and rival, John, who had actually arrived at
Le Mans during the night, but who had left again
immediately, fearing some trap would be laid for
him.

1 In the early middle ages the lessons read in the Divine Office were, as
a rule, very considerably longer than those now in use. It would seem
that no definite quantity was originally fixed for reading, and we find
marginal notes in the MSS., inserted by a later hand, indicating where the
reader is to stop. It followed that the lessons were much more arbitrarily
curtailed by local authority or even without authority. Cf. Batiffol,
Histoire du Brcviaire, p. 161 ; Dom S. Baumer, in the Katholik, Nov.
1890, p. 406, Gesckichte dcs Breviers, pp. 335, 336. [Eo.]
DD

450 THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

One of the attendants of the Bishop of Lincoln,
named Gerard, having learned the cause of the disturb-
ance, came in haste to tell the man of God, advising
him to abridge the lessons of the Office, and set out
before day had fully dawned, after the example of the
other ecclesiastics, who had already taken flight.
St. Hugh remained perfectly calm, and quietly finished
his Office, without any abbreviation. This was really
the cause of his escape, for the delay brought Robert,
Abbot of La Couture, to his assistance, who guided
him safely, by unfrequented paths, beyond the outskirts
of Le Mans.

His travelling companions were less fortunate. As
they were hastily flying from the town, they fell into
the hands of the besiegers, who ill-treated them and
detained them as prisoners.

St. Hugh had left in the care of the Abbot of
St. Pierre two carriages, with several horses, and a
portion of his baggage. These were all returned to
him by the mother of Arthur of Brittany, who took
possession of Le Mans on Wednesday, April 2ist. At
the same time, Constance did not forget to recommend
herself and her son to the prayers of the holy Bishop.
His reputation stood so high that both parties were
only anxious to prove the esteem and respect with
which they regarded him.

He now directed his course towards the town of
Seez, but turned aside from the main road to visit the
Abbot of Perseigne, 1 who had a great reputation for
learning and sanetity. He did not find the Abbot, who
had been commissioned by the Pope to preach the new

1 Adam, the Cistercian Abbot of Perseigne (diocese of Le Mans), was
consulted by many distinguished persons, who held him in high esteem.
Among his works (Migne, Patrol, vol. ccxi.) is to be found a letter
addressed to Dom Stephen de Chalmet, Prior of the Carthusian Monastery
of Portes, treating at length of devotion to the Infant Jesus and His
Blessed Mother.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. 451

Crusade then in contemplation ; but without showing
any impatience, he consoled himself by celebrating the
Holy Mysteries. After that, continuing his journey, he
reached his destination without further accident.

In the meantime, John, after venting his wrath upon
Angers and Le Mans, which towns had not acknow-
ledged his sovereignty, proceeded to Rouen, where he
was crowned with the ducal crown of Normandy on
April 25th. In the middle of the ceremony, he was
guilty of another act of irreverence, which did not pass
without comment. When the Archbishop of Rouen
placed the lance, surmounted by the ducal standard, in
his hand, some young courtiers, who were standing
behind him, shouted applause, which was mingled with
outbursts of foolish laughter. John turned round to
grimace back at them, and in so doing, carelessly
allowed the standard to slip from his grasp and fall to
the ground. Many of those present looked upon this
as an omen of what actually happened shortly after-
wards. In a few years, Normandy fell into the hands
of Philip Augustus of France, and with it Anjou,
Maine, and Touraine were also lost to England.
St. Hugh was not present at this ceremony at Rouen,
but he took part in the King's coronation at West-
minster on the 27th of May. His return to his diocese
was one long triumph. Everywhere on his way, the
people came in crowds to meet him, and welcomed him
with demonstrations of joy. His entry into the city of
Lincoln recalled the memory of his first enthronement
there. He returned to his children this time, bringing
them the blessed gift of peace, which he had purchased
at the cost of endless fatigue and many a bitter struggle.
The spontaneous homage of his people was very different
from the hypocritical professions of John Lackland,
and must really have brought consolation to his fatherly
heart. At the same time, even the insincerities of the

452 THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN.

new King were a tribute to the upright and intrepid
character of the Bishop of Lincoln. John could not,
for motives of policy, run counter to public opinion,
and outrage the feelings of veneration with which
St. Hugh was regarded throughout the whole kingdom.

CHAPTER II.

THE PEACE OF LES ANDELYS. ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY
TO FRANCE.

WE have been occupied so long in relating the political
events with which St. Hugh was mixed up, often
against his will, that we have partly lost sight of the
more spiritual aspects of his character. The pastor
and the ascetic have been forgotten in the champion of
Church privileges. And yet he was always, and before
all else, a pastor faithfully discharging all his duties to
his flock ; an ascetic who preached by example as well
as by precept ; in short, the true Carthusian Bishop,
whom we have described in the second book of this
work. We have now to show that, such as he was in
the beginning of his episcopate, such he remained
during the last year he spent in the midst of his people.
The events of the last few months had only strength-
ened his authority. W T hen Kings had given way before
him, it was folly for his own subjects to think of resist-
ance. And so he was able to bring to completion the
work of reorganization and reform which had been his
first care in undertaking the spiritual charge of the
diocese. Moreover, both clergy and faithful united in one
feeling of veneration for the holy Bishop, whose virtues
had now reached their culmination, and shone with so
bright a light that none could fail to be dazzled by it.
While his benevolence took new developments, and
was poured out without measure upon the humblest

454 THE PEACE OF LES ANDELYS.

and most miserable of his children, his energy and
zeal seemed to set at defiance the weakness of a body
worn out with age and infirmity. There were some
who prayed that his life might be prolonged even
beyond the Scriptural limit of three score years and
ten. But the holy man hoped otherwise, and seems to
have had a presentiment that the end was not far off.
This took him to Witham to begin his preparation for
death by one of the retreats he loved so well. It must
have been, we think, in the autumn of the same year
1199, which witnessed his return to England after the
death of King Richard, that St. Hugh visited his old
monastery for the last time, his stay being made
memorable by an event reputed miraculous.

When his retreat was over, and he was about to
return to Lincoln, the day before his departure, he went
to the cell of each monk, to ask pardon for any bad
example he might have given. The whole community
was then assembled, and St. Hugh repeated the same
act of humility in the presence of all. After this, the
monks asked his pardon in their turn. There were
many petitions for prayers exchanged between them
with answering promises and benedictions ; and at last
the Carthusian Bishop took a solemn farewell of the
Prior, embraced his brothers in Religion, gave them all
his blessing, and finally quitted them with his favourite
formula of adieu : " I commend you to God, and to the
word of His grace." l

As he was to start on his journey very early the
following morning, he went to spend the night in the
house of the lay-brothers, near which his attendants
were lodged. This was a distinct building, at some little
distance, like the domus conversorum, or " lower house "
at the Grande Chartreuse, in which Hugh in his early-
days had acted as Prior. St. Hugh slept quietly for

1 Acts xx. 32.

THE PEACE OF LES ANDELYS. 455

some hours, and then rose to go into the church for the
night Office. As he was reciting his Breviary, suddenly
the windows on the west side were illuminated by a
brilliant and vivid light. Some of the monks hastened
out, to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon. They
soon returned to tell the man of God that a kitchen
close at hand near the lay-brothers' quarters was in
flames. This kitchen, which was a temporary erec-
tion, and had been put up for the convenience of the
Bishop's people, was really only a wooden shed, covered
with straw. Five or six paces from it was the guest-
house, with its roof of very dry planks. Only a very
little further on, were the cells of the lay-brothers, built
also of wood, and offering the most dangerous sort of
fuel for the flames. The church itself, and the whole
domus conversorum, were threatened.

Hugh at once realized the full danger of the situ-
ation. For one moment he trembled for the buildings
around him, but his trust in God returned almost
immediately. He made the sign of the Cross several
times in the direction of the fire, and, interrupting his
Office, he prostrated himself at the foot of the altar.
There he remained in earnest prayer until they came to
tell him that all danger was over. The shed alone
was consumed, and no one regretted its disappearance.
The holy Bishop had already asked several times that
it might be pulled down, and replaced by a stone
building, as he anticipated some such accident as had
now occurred.

When the monks saw themselves thus preserved
from a terrible disaster, they broke out into exclama-
tions of thanksgiving and wonder. St. Hugh joined
very simply in their expressions of gratitude to God,
without appearing to observe that it was to him that
they attributed this merciful intervention of Divine
Providence. "Blessed be God!" he said; "not only has

456 THE PEACE OF LES ANDELYS.

He saved us from present danger, but He has destroyed
that which might have caused danger in the future."

This was the Saint's last farewell to Witham, and it
was a farewell worthy of him. His final legacy was
to teach his brothers, not merely by word of mouth,
but by an occurrence they all believed to be miraculous,
a wonderful lesson of the power of prayer.

He had another visit to make, to a place even
dearer still, before he left earth for Heaven. How often,
in exile and difficulty, had his heart turned to his old
home, in the desert of the Grande Chartreuse ! Might
he not behold once more this country of his soul,
before his eyes closed for ever ? His longing was
destined to be gratified ; and the opportunity came
when John Lackland sent for him to be present at the
signing of a peace between England and France, which
took place near Andely, on the 22nd of May, 1200.

Many of the conditions of this peace have been
blamed, not perhaps without reason, especially those
which set aside the claims of Prince Arthur of Brittany.
But the Bishop of Lincoln must not be held responsible
for this. His part in the transaction amounted to no
more than a general approval of the pacific resolutions
of the two monarchs, and a prayer for the happy issue
of their discussions and negotiations. By the treaty of
Andely, an agreement was come to as to the dower of
Blanche of Castile, the niece of the King of England,
and her union with the heir-presumptive of the crown
of France was definitively settled. The marriage, in
fact, was celebrated at Portmort, in Normandy, the
day after the signing of the treaty. 1 The Archbishop of
Bordeaux gave the nuptial benediction, in the presence
of several Bishops, among whom was probably St. Hugh
of Lincoln. Although no one could then foretell the
future, the whole of France showed great joy at this

1 Cf, Xors^it'-, l\ upland under the .-I /lift'- 'in A7//^s, vol. ii. p. 397,

THE PEACE OF LES ANDELYS. 457

union. The manifestations of delight were for once
justified by the event. No nobler Sovereign has ever
adorned a throne than the fruit of this marriage, the
illustrious St. Louis. But, at the time, the country
simply rejoiced at what it was hoped would prove the
reparation of many wrongs, and the term of that cruel
strife which had laid the whole of the kingdom under
an interdict.

Ever since the month of February, the curse of the
Church had rested on the land. The Papal Legate,
not being able to induce Philip Augustus to take' back
his lawful wife, the virtuous Queen Ingelburga, pro-
nounced a sentence of general interdict, which was
rigorously put into execution ; so rigorously, indeed,
that the marriage of Blanche- of Castile had to take
place in Normandy, and not upon the French territory
over which her husband was afterwards to reign.
Nothing can depict the consternation of a whole
Christian people at thus seeing themselves deprived
of all the ceremonies of the Church, and of almost all
the channels of grace. It was the only means by which
an outraged morality could assert itself, and by which
Christendom could be taught the lesson that Kings are
not superior to the obligations of ordinary Christians,
nor excepted from the censures of the Vicar of Christ.
The French King, thus punished through his people,
was obliged at last to open his eyes to his true duties,
and sacrifice his unholy love to the good of his subjects.
Self-interest alone, in the absence of any higher motive,
left him no choice between reconciliation with the Holy
See and the loss of his kingdom.

Philip Augustus hastened to return to Paris with
the young bride and bridegroom, who were welcomed
with great joy, as a pledge of the peace just signed
with England, and on the eve of being concluded with
the Church. The Bishop of Lincoln followed them to

458 ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE.

the capital shortly afterwards. And then, having
obtained permission from King John and the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, he set out for the Grande
Chartreuse, on the 3ist of May, 1200. The principal
halting-places of his journey have been described to us
by his chaplain, who wrote down from day to day his
memories and impressions.

As he travelled from Andely to Paris, he passed
through Meulan, 1 where he venerated the relics of
St. Nicasius, and after having made a generous
offering at the shrine, he himself detached and took
away with him a small portion of bone from the head
of the holy martyr. At Saint-Denis again he was
delighted to visit all the treasures of the famous
abbe)', and stopped much longer before the shrines
containing bodies of saints, than before the royal
tombs. The object of his journey, as all his actions
clearly showed, was not to satisfy his curiosity, but to
find consolation in venerating the mortal remains of the
blessed, or edification in the society of the holy men
whom he was thus able to visit in the retirement of
their monastic solitude.

As he came out of the Abbey Church of St. Denis,
he was greeted, it seems, by a crowd of ecclesiastics,
belonging to almost every European nation. These
were the students of the great University of Paris, who
perhaps wished to honour St. Hugh, as the enlightened
protector of many seats of learning, and in particular
of the University of Oxford, 2 which was situated in the
diocese of Lincoln, and had developed considerably
under the episcopate of the Servant of God. Full of
ardour and enthusiasm, these young men looked with

1 There was a great leper-house at Meulan, which may also have
specially attracted St. Hugh. See the Histoirt Litttraire de la France,
vol. xx. p. 608. [ED.]

' See the note at the end of this chapter. [Eo.]

ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 459

admiring eyes on this "oracle of the schools," 1 this
champion of the Church and the clergy. Enthusiastic
expressions of applause and satisfaction were heard on
all sides. St. Hugh responded to them by endeavouring
to give pleasure to all who pressed around him. To
some he addressed words full of kindness, others he
embraced, and he gave his blessing to those with whom
he was unable to make closer acquaintance. All were
proud to receive even a look from him, or any slight
token of consideration. Many of them earnestly
entreated him to become their guest. He accepted
the invitation of Raymund, 2 afterwards a Canon of
Lincoln and Archdeacon of Leicester, who, it is said,
was distantly related to him, and who subsequently
distinguished himself by his chivalrous conduct at the
time of the interdict in England, which occurred some
years later. Faithful to the example of St. Hugh,
Raymund preferred disgrace and exile, to obeying the
tyrannical commands of King John, and as his revenues
were not confiscated, he shared them with the numerous
victims of persecution. St. Hugh's former chaplain
was one of those who participated in his bounty. He
also was an exile for the good cause, and for three
months received hospitality from Canon Raymund, for
which he expresses his gratitude in the course of his
biography of our Saint. 3

It was, no doubt, in the house of this Canon that
St. Hugh was visited by one of the most distinguished

1 Abbot Adam tells us that St. Hugh was styled " scholarum consultor "
by John of Leicester, in a distich inscribed on the Saint's tomb. (Magna
Vita, pp. 303 and 377.) [ED.]

8 From two entries in the Norman Exchequer Rolls which have come
to my notice too late to be mentioned in their proper place, it appears that
the person charged to convey the Carthusians to England in 1180 was
named Raymund, and he is described as clericus Regis. It is just con-
ceivable that he may be identical with the person here referred to. See
Appendix. [ED.]

3 Magna Vila, bk. v. ch, 13,

460 ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE.

theologians of the University of Paris. " My Lord
Bishop," said the great man, "you have raised the
glory of your Cathedral Church above all others, by
drawing many of the most famous ecclesiastics thither.
I will not disguise from you the great desire I have to
associate myself with them, on any terms you may
propose." " We will gladly receive you," answered
the man of God, " but on two conditions only. One is,
that you take up your residence amongst us. The
other is, that the integrity of your life be as conspicuous
as your learning." The great theologian l blushed at
receiving this lesson, which he certainly deserved, and
it is said, that he profited by it and amended his ways.
Another visit showed the impression which the
arrival of St. Hugh had made, not only on the
University of Paris, but also on the French Court.
The son of Philip Augustus, afterwards Louis VIII.
came to his lodging, accompanied by Duke Arthur of
Brittany. Hugh gave a fatherly welcome to both the
young Princes. He embraced them affectionately, and
proffered advice full of gentleness and wisdom. Prince
Louis received these exhortations respectfully and
gladly ; but Prince Arthur, on the contrary, was
displeased, because he was exhorted to keep the
peace with his uncle, the King of England. The
Bishop had good reasons for giving him this counsel,
and perhaps foresaw the melancholy end of the contest
against which he warned him. Moreover, he did not
suggest to the unfortunate young Duke any concession
that it would have been dishonoura'ble to grant. Let
it be said, however, that Prince Arthur was then only

1 According to St. Hugh's biographer, this theologian was no other
than the Rector of the University of Paris. " Praeerat enim scholis
Parisiensibus, regens et ipse scholas." (Magna Vita, bk. iii. ch. n.) [The
regens scholas is a technical term, and means no more than that he lectured
to a class. The prceerat scholis may perhaps imply more, but not clearly
the rectorship of the University. ED.]

ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 461

fourteen years of age, so that he may perhaps be
excused for not understanding the benevolent intentions
with which the advice was given.

The interview terminated by a proposition from
Prince Louis, that St. Hugh would honour him by
visiting his bride, Blanche of Castile. Hugh consented
with pleasure, and at once set out on foot for the
royal palace, which was not far off. The Princess was
rather distressed at an accident which had recently
happened. Her husband had been slightly wounded
in a tournament, 1 and she was disposed to look upon it
as an omen of future misfortune. St. Hugh gently
dissipated these fears, and spoke words of kindness and
encouragement. After a few moments, peace and joy
reappeared on the brow of the young bride ; her little
trouble had flown before the infectious calmness and
consoling chanty of the Saint.

The remembrance of this kind visit, related to
St. Louis by his mother in after-years, was not without
its influence in the many favours he bestowed upon the
Carthusian Order. 1 He founded a Carthusian Monastery
in Paris, in the year 1257, and presented the Grande
Chartreuse, among many other gifts, with a magnificent
relic of the True Cross, and one of the thorns from the
Holy Crown.

Leaving Paris at last, St. Hugh proceeded to
Troyes, passing by Jouy, where he taught the great
lesson of faith, of which we have already spoken, by

1 The suggestion that Louis had been wounded in a tournament, for
which no ancient authority is quoted, though it is affirmed by modern
writers, seems to me ridiculous. Louis at that time was only twelve and a
half years old. His bride, Blanche of Castile, was a few months younger.
See Elie Berger, Histoire de Blanche de Castille (1895), p. 10. Cf. Petit.
Dutaillis, Etude sur Louis VIII. p. 3. [Eo.J

1 Queen Blanche herself seems to have been especially attracted to the
Cistercians, for whom she built the Abbey of Maubuisson, desiring, if it
were God's will, to end her days there. See Berger, op. cit. p. 319. [Eo.]

462 S7*. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE.

his refusal to contemplate the miraculous Host. 1 At
Troyes, he saw as he was leaving the town, a miserable
looking object coming towards him, who in a piteous
voice begged for mercy. This was a former steward
of Brackley, a village in the diocese of Lincoln, which
belonged to the Earl of Leicester. The Earl, who was
noted for great personal courage, was connected with all
the highest families in England ; he also enjoyed the
King's favour, and took advantage of it to exercise his
authority with great arrogance and injustice, thus
setting the worst possible example to his agents and
officials. Especially was this bad example too faithfully
followed on one particular occasion. A robber had taken
refuge in the church at Brackley, but the agents of the
Earl, disregarding the right of sanctuary, had dragged
the unfortunate man from his asylum, and led him to
the gallows. The Bishop of Lincoln was then in
Normandy, just before King Richard's death. On his
return, he excommunicated the authors of this outrage
and their accomplices. The penance he imposed upon
them was a severe and humiliating one ; it was intended
to repair a great scandal, and to humble the pride of
those against whom it was enforced. The officers of the
Earl were to go, barefoot, although it was in the depth
of winter, to the grave of the man who had been hanged ;
they were to take up the decaying corpse, put it in a
coffin and carry it to the cemetery of the church, where
the right of sanctuary had been violated. 2 They were
also to receive the discipline from the priests at
Brackley, and afterwards from the clergy of every
church in Lincoln, going from one church to another,

1 See above, bk. iii. ch. vi. p. 346.

2 In this and other actions of St. Hugh's life, which may at first sight
seem somewhat bizarre, it will generally be discovered that he was only
carrying out the ideas prevalent in his time. An example of a similar
penance will be found referred to in the note at the end of this chapter.
[ED.J

ST. HUGH'S JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 463

always with bare feet. Rather than incur the terrible
consequences of St. Hugh's excommunication, all those
who were guilty submitted to this severe penance, with
the sole exception of the steward of Brackley, who
preferred to leave England altogether, and to take
refuge with his master, the Earl, who was then in
Normandy.

This was the man who now at last presented
himself before his Bishop, in the most piteous state
imaginable. Since his voluntary exile, everything
had gone wrong with him. Instead of being kindly
received by the Earl of Leicester, he found himself in
disgrace ; he had no money and no friends, and was
reduced to the last extremity. He bitterly regretted
his rejection of the rigorous terms offered by the
man of God, and came to beg for absolution at the
cost of any penance the Bishop might inflict. St. Hugh
received this lost sheep with kindness and granted his
request. The steward thankfully accepted the conditions
imposed upon him, and peace was restored to his soul.

Such an example could not fail to strike terror into
all those that heard of it. The severity of St. Hugh
whenever there was any question of ecclesiastical
authority being despised or set at naught, taught
clergy and laity alike to dread the censures of the
Church, and to listen with respect to the voice of the
Vicar of Christ. Almost unconsciously St. Hugh in
this way lent powerful support to Pope Innocent III.
and helped materially to enforce the interdict from
which France had not yet been released.

464 ST. HUGH AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

NOTE TO BOOK IV. CHAPTER II.

I am not aware of any definite allusion connecting
St. Hugh's name with the University of Oxford. The
suggestion made above, that the anxiety of the Parisian
students to see him, was due to their interest in the
rival seat of learning in England, is a mere conjecture,
which has no foundation in the Magna Vita. Strangely
enough, it is implied that what drew these young men
around him was a desire for spiritual favours, " for,"
says his biographer, " after St. Nicholas (the patron
of University students), there was no one to whom
students owed so many graces." We have reason to
believe, however, that Oxford did make great strides
forward during the episcopate of St. Hugh. It is in the
year 1190, that we read for the first time of a foreign
student crossing the seas to go to " the common
studium of letters which was at Oxford," 1 and in
1192 Richard of Devizes speaks of the clerks of Oxford
as so numerous that the city could hardly feed them.
So also when we know that St. Hugh held his synods
at Oxford, 2 and was a frequent visitor at Eynsham,
which is close at hand, it is impossible to suppose that
he took no interest in the Oxford schools. After all,
the documentary history of the University can only be
said to begin after St. Hugh's death, and it is a curious
fact that the name of his chaplain and biographer,
Adam, when Abbot of Eynsham, meets us in con-
nection with the very earliest episode thus formally
attested. The incident to which I refer is the famous

1 Pertz, Man. Germ. Histor. xxiii. p. 467. See Rashdall, Universities
of Europe, ii. p. 347.

3 Giraldus Cambrensis, vol. i. pp. 259, 263, 264. It was also at
Oxford, in 1197, that Abbot Samson, of Bury-St. -Edmunds, associated
with St. Hugh,- it will be remembered, in the affair of the Coventry monks,
entertained the expelled chapter, together with a numerous body of
Oxford masters. (Memorials of Bury-St. -Edmunds, vol. i. p. 295.)

ST. HUGH AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 465

suspendium clericorum, the hanging of the clerks, of 1209,
which seems to have had for the most momentous of
its consequences the foundation of a rival centre
of scholarship at Cambridge. 1 An Oxford student had
seduced and murdered a young girl of the town. The
townsmen in their thirst for vengeance retaliated by
hanging two of the students, who apparently were quite
innocent of the crime. This was a most serious in-
fringement of the privileges of the University. All
who attended the schools were clerks and under
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The Bishop of Lincoln, or
his representatives, alone had authority to try them
and inflict punishment. As this happened during the
Interdict, no redress could be looked for from King
John, so the students simply deserted Oxford for the
time and betook themselves to other seats of learning.
Amongst the rest some seem to have set up schools in
Cambridge, which in the course of years developed into
a University. At Oxford things were not righted until
after the removal of the Interdict, when the penitent
townsmen at last, in 1214, accepted the judgment of
the Papal Legate, Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum. The
sentence passed by him, too long to be quoted here,
brings into prominent relief the supreme authority over
the University claimed by the Bishop of Lincoln, 2 and
presumably enjoyed without dispute in the time of
St. Hugh and his predecessors. A severe penance was
imposed upon the burghers. Amongst other things,
they were ordered to go barefoot and bareheaded to
the place where the clerks who had been hanged were

1 Rashdall, Universities, vol. ii. 349 and 542.

2 The name of the Bishop of Lincoln is mentioned no less than
fourteen times. The townsmen are to execute everything in accordance
with his mandate. Fifty of the leading townsmen are to swear to respect
his authority, "nee aliquo modo machinabimini in his vel in aliis quod
prasfati Lincolniensis Episcopi jurisdictio elidatur vel jus suum vel ecclesiae
suas in aliquo minuatur." (Anstey, Munimenta, i. i.) Cf. Mrs. De Para-
vicini, History of Balliol College, p. 17.

EE

466 ST. HUGH AND THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

buried, to disinter their bodies and to convey them to
the churchyard. Furthermore, the townspeople were
to remit a certain proportion of the charges of the
hostels, to contribute a definite sum every year to the
support of the poor scholars, and to provide a feast for
a hundred of them on St. Nicholas' day. For some
reason unexplained, Abbot Adam and the monks of
Eynsham bound themselves to the then Bishop of
Lincoln, Hugh de Wells, to discharge these last two
obligations in lieu of the burghers of Oxford. 1 The
original deed, which is still extant, contains no mention
of any quid pro quo, and it is possible that Abbot Adam,
trained in the generous school of St. Hugh, undertook
this as a pure act of charity. Some rash benefactions
of this sort, exaggerated by a community which perhaps
had little sympathy with the higher aspirations of their
Abbot, may have led to his being described in his old
age as a dilapidator of the goods of the monastery.
However this may be, it seems certain, from the docu-
ments' 2 connected with the suspendium clericorum, that no
special chancellor was appointed to the University until
a later date, which fact must have made its dependence
upon the Bishop of Lincoln before this time only the
more immediate. 2

1 It is curious that both in the judgment of the Bishop of Tusculum,
and in the grant of Abbot Adam, the Bishop of Lincoln is referred to as
Hugo tune Epis. Lincoln., where we should certainly expect nunc. It
almost looks as if our Hugh, and not Hugh de Wells, were referred to,
but this seems impossible.

3 It might conceivably have been possible that the Chancellor of the
Cathedral Chapter (it was William de Monte in St. Hugh's time, see above,
p. 151) also acted as Chancellor of the University, but in the summary of
Lincoln customs sent to Scotland in 1236, we find that the jurisdiction of
the Chancellor over schools was at that time restricted to the county
of Lincoln itself. (See Bradshaw and Wordsworth, Lincoln Cathedral
Statutes, vol. ii. p. 160.) It may be that this was only a recent arrange-
ment, and that previously the powers of the Cathedral ( ,'hancellor extended
to the whole diocese. For a tribute of Alexander Neckam to the success
ut the Lincoln schools under William de Monte, see Appendix.

CHAPTER III.

THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN AT THE GRANDE
CHARTREUSE.

ON his way to Grenoble, St. Hugh wished to make
a pilgrimage to visit the relics of St. Anthony, which
had been brought from Constantinople to Dauphine, by
a nobleman of that province, who had received them
from the Greek Emperor. The history of this precious
treasure is somewhat connected with the early history
of the Carthusian Order, as St. Hugh's biographer
takes care to tell us. The great Patriarch of the monks
of the East almost seems to have wished to go before
and prepare the way for his imitator, St. Bruno, for
the latter built his first monastery at no great distance
from the church where the body of St. Anthony had
been deposited about fourteen years previously. 1
According to the pious author whose account we are
following, St. Anthony chose this resting-place, " on
purpose to assist with his presence the new Carthusian
hermitage ; being sufficiently near to his faithful dis-
ciples, to watch over all that concerned their welfare ;

1 It was in 1070 that the body of St. Anthony came into the possession
of Jocelin, the Dauphinese noble in question ; and in 1084, St. Bruno
established himself in the desert of the Grande Chartreuse. The Order of
Antonines sprang into existence in 1090, and it is probable that St. Hugh's
biographer had confused the two dates, as he speaks of the translation of
the relics, as if it had taken place after St. Bruno entered the desert of the
Grand Chartreuse, instead of before. (See, L Abbayc de Saint-Antoint en
Dauphind, By L. T. Dassy, Priest and Missionary Oblate of Mary
Immaculate. )

468 AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

but not so near that their peace and solitude could be
disturbed by the pilgrims who came to visit his
shrine." 1

The affection which the sons of St. Bruno felt, in
their turn, for the great Egyptian monk, was strongly
manifested in 1119, when Pope Calixtus II. consecrated
the Church of St. Anthony. The holy relics were then
taken out of their former shrine, and enclosed in a
new reliquary of wood, which had been made by the
Carthusian Prior, Dom Guigo I., the fourth successor
of St. Bruno. The honour of touching the sacred bones
was granted to the Carthusian who had brought this
offering from Dom Guigo. This was Dom Soffred,
Prior of the Carthusian Monastery of Ecouges. He
probably carried back to the Grande Chartreuse some
fragments of the relics.' 2

St. Hugh celebrated Mass with great devotion at
the altar of St. Anthony, and venerated the body which
was sanctified by so many years of courageous penance.
Afterwards, he visited the hospice, where the sufferers

1 The distance from St. Antoine to the Grande Chartreuse is between
thirty and forty miles. This certainly ought to have guaranteed the
Carthusians from any encroachment on their privacy. [ItD.]

2 Dom le Couteulx thus reconciles two different accounts ; that of
St Hugh's chaplain, who speaks only of Dom Guigo, and that of Aymar
Falco, author of the Historia Antoniana, who speaks only of Dom Soffred.
We observe, also, that the first historian speaks of the reliquary as being
made of yew, and the second, of cypress wood. These slight differences
do not prevent the two versions from coinciding in everything that is
essential, the chief of which is that the authenticity of the relics of
St. Anthony was solemnly recognized, and also that the monks of the
Carthusian Order were among the first to venerate them. With these relics
was also preserved the tunic of St. Paul, the first hermit. (Dom le Couteulx,
Ann. Ord. Cartus. vol. i. p. 230. Cf. Acta Santoritm, January I7th.) [li
should be added that very grave doubts must be felt as to the authenticity
of these relics. At the present moment it seems uncertain whether the
remains venerated in the time of St. Hugh are preserved at Aries or at
St. Antoine. Both churches claim the honour of possessing St. Anthony's
body. See Verger, Vie de St. Antoine le Grand, and Petit, Histoirc des
Reliques de St. Antoine. ED.J

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 469

were lodged who had been attacked by the mysterious
plague, called by the common people, "the sacred fire."
The hope which these unfortunate creatures had placed
in the protection of St. Anthony, was rewarded by
many cures, of which St. Hugh's chaplain, who was
an eye-witness of them, speaks with the greatest
enthusiasm. * We were witnesses in this hospice," he
says, "not merely of one or two, but of hundreds, or
rather, I might say, of a countless multitude of prodigies.
We saw young and old cured by St. Anthony of their
terrible disease, and enjoying perfect health in what
was left them of their bodies, notwithstanding the
traces of it still to be seen in their limbs, which were
frequently as if they had been burned or mutilated." 1
St. Hugh also manifested his astonishment at all these
marvels, and his regret that nothing had been written
to make them more widely known. His biographer
made a point of breaking this silence, and we should
have cause to reproach ourselves, if we did not mention
his testimony here, which was prior to the fuller
details afterwards published concerning the Abbey and
Hospice of St. Anthony. 2

After leaving an abundant alms for the relief of the
poor sufferers, and the Antonine monks 3 who tended
them, the holy Bishop set out for Grenoble. On the
way, several castles were pointed out to him which
had been struck by lightning, as a punishment for
outrages done by their owners upon the pilgrims of
St. Anthony. The Bishop of Lincoln had no cause to
fear similar usage ; for his name was popular throughout
Dauphine, and he was welcomed and honoured as one
of the most distinguished sons of that province.

1 See further the note at the end of this chapter. [ED.]

2 Magna Vila, bk. v. chs. 13, 14.

3 The French author seems to be mistaken in supposing that the
Antonine monks were already established at St. Didier. It was only in
1296 that the old Benedictine monastery passed into their hands, [ED.]

470 AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

At Grenoble, his reception was almost a triumph.
He made his entry into that city on the feast of St. John
the Baptist, the special patron of the Carthusian Order.
Public rejoicings were already in progress on account
of the feast, and St. Hugh's arrival lent an additional
zest to the holiday-making. The whole population
went out to meet him, headed by John de Sassenage,
the illustrious Bishop of Grenoble, who, it will be
remembered, had decided that St. Hugh should be
sent to Witham, and who had himself been a son of
St. Bruno. He had governed his diocese for many
years with the zeal and activity of a true apostle, and
he was to display at the close of his life a still more
generous devotion during the sufferings of his Hock
from the terrible floods of 1219. Between the two
Carthusian Bishops there was naturally a close bond
of sympathy, and their meeting was a most affectionate
one on both sides.

The first greetings were exchanged outside the walls
of the city, and then a solemn procession was formed,
to conduct the man of God to the Cathedral. The
streets were strewn with flowers, silken tapestries were
hung from the windows, and the air rang with shouts
of welcome and songs of joy. The whole city was
en fete, and the people did all in their power to show
their veneration for this beloved and honoured guest.
St. Hugh sang High Mass in the Cathedral with his
usual devotion ; and after the Gospel, preached a
sermon, so full of fervour, that nearly all who heard it
were moved to tears. Something of the deep feeling
of gratitude which filled his heart at thus revisiting
his native province for the first time since his consecra-
tion as Bishop, must have shown itself in his words.
He spoke not only as a father, but as a brother as
well, and tears flowed still more abundantly, when,
with perfect humility and simplicity, he recommended

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 47I

himself to the prayers of all, as one, " taken from the
dunghill, and made to sit down with the princes of
the Church." l

The family of the Saint were present, and had their
part in this ovation. His brother, William of Avalon,
had made up his mind that St. Hugh was to christen
his little son, now seven years old, and the full baptismal
ceremonies had been deferred until this occasion. 2
The Bishop of Grenoble was the godfather, but Peter
of Avalon, who was one of the child's uncles, wished his
own name to be given to the boy. St. Hugh objected to
this, and repeated the words of the Gospel for the
day: "Not so, but he shall be called John" a fitting
reminder of the feast. The baptismal rite was performed
with all solemnity by the Bishop of Lincoln, who
afterwards spent the rest of the day with the Bishop
of Grenoble, being entertained by the latter prelate
with every kind and hospitable attention.

On the following morning, June 25th, at break of
day, St. Hugh left Grenoble, and took the path which
led to the Grande Chartreuse. It was not long before
the horses refused to carry their riders any further up
the narrow mountain paths, which often skirted the very
edge of the precipice. All were obliged to dismount,
and perform the rest of the journey on foot. St. Hugh
cheerfully put himself at the head of the party, and in

1 Psalm cxii. 7.

2 We think it is right to interpret in this manner the words of
St. Hugh's biographer, baptizavit, for it seems hard to suppose that the
Saint would have allowed so long a delay, if the child had not been
previously baptized in private. In such a case the non-essential ceremonies
may be supplied later. [It is curious, however, that a decree of the Synod
of Westminster, which was held, as mentioned later on, a week after
St. Hugh's return to England, prescribes that when a child, in a case of
necessity, had been baptized by a layman, only those ceremonies should be
supplied afterwards which followed the pouring of the water (sequentia
immersionem non proecedentia per sacerdotem expleantur], Hoveden,
iv. p. 130. ED.]

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

spite of his age and the intense heat of the day, bore
the fatigue as well as any of them. He was supported
by the prospect of so soon resting in that beloved home
from which he had been torn against his will. As they
climbed higher and higher, the air grew purer, and the
sweet perfume of the pine-clad mountains refreshed
him with its fragrance. Who shall say what his
feelings must have been when he passed the narrow
defile shut in between two colossal walls of rock, where
the little River Guiers comes thundering down, jealously
guarding the entrance against all intruders. At last he
found himself once more in that privileged spot which
seems a thousand miles distant from all the world
outside. He did not feel surprise that no triumphal
procession of monks came out to greet him. The
strictness of their enclosure, as he well knew, relieved
him of such embarrassments, and, besides, he had
taken measures to reach there during the meridiana, the
mid-day siesta then allowed to the Carthusians, who
did not retire to rest again after the night Office. He
made a short halt at the " lower house," which recalled
the time when he was Procurator of the Grande
Chartreuse. Once more he paused to take breath
beside the rustic bench, where in old days he had sat
with St. Peter of Tarentaise, and as he wiped the
sweat from his brow he chatted to his companion of
the brave old man and the talks they had had together.
So. in silence, and recollection, and a joy that had
nothing of earth in it, he drew near once more to the
dwelling which had been to him as the very " gate of
Heaven." It was at that lovely season of the year
when all nature seems to smile. The rocks were
covered with verdure and flowers, the forests were
clothed in beauty, and thousands of birds sang a
chorus of gladness. This was a better welcome by
far than the shouts of the people of Grenoble. Soon

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 473

he mounted the last slope which led straight to the
monastery, and stood still for a moment to drink in
with his eyes the beauty of the place, of which he had
once said: "This is my rest for ever and ever; here
will I dwell, for I have chosen it." 1 In heart, he had
never left it. There was the church in which he had
said his first Mass ; in the graveyard hard by lay his
old Superiors and Brothers ; there was the cloister
which had sheltered his first years of solitude, there
was the cell where he had prayed, and studied, and
fought against the tempter. And here, at last, were to
be seen his brothers in Religion, coming to meet him
with a joy that was no less deep for the calm of perfect
recollection. At their head walked the Prior, Dom
Jancelin, who, since 1176, had governed the Carthusian
Order with as much firmness as humility. 2 St. Hugh
was delighted to speak with him of the progress of the
family of St. Bruno, and of the numerous new founda-
tions which had already been made, so that about
thirty Carthusian monasteries had been represented at
the last General Chapter of the Order. The Prior
himself and his monks had also much to ask in their
turn, and were eager to hear from the man of God of
the events of his episcopate, and of his many trials and
consolations.

St. Hugh remained three weeks at the Grande
Chartreuse, leading the same life as during his retreats
at Witham, following all the exercises of the com-
munity, especially the long night watches, and
occupying one of the ordinary cells, probably that in
which he had lived as a monk. He would have
wished the solitude and silence of this too short stay
to remain unbroken ; but this was impossible, as he

1 Psalm cxxxi. 14.

2 He died in 1233, having been Prior for fifty-eight years. At his death
the Carthusian Order numbered more than fifty foundations.

474 AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

could not escape from the numerous visitors by whom
he was besieged. As soon as his presence in the
monastery was known, both ecclesiatics and lay-folk
hastened to pay their respects to him, and to consult
him about all their affairs. Bishops even came from
a distance to be enlightened by that supernatural
wisdom, the fame of which was in all men's mouths.
Amongst his other visitors was the Prince-Bishop of
Geneva, a former Prior of the Carthusian Monastery of
Valon, whose virtue and humility had so impressed
itself upon all, that even in this high dignity he was
still best known as plain Brother Nanthelmus.

He told the Bishop of Lincoln of the long persecu-
tion he had suffered. For twelve years he had been
exiled from his see, because he had vindicated the
rights of his Church, as they had been proclaimed by
his illustrious predecessor Arducius. He had excom-
municated William I. Count of Geneva, whom at his
request Frederick Barbarossa put under the ban of the
Empire. But the Count had never submitted, and
Geneva remained closed to its Bishop, who was obliged
to visit the rest of his diocese more or less clandestinely.

St. Hugh received Nanthelmus with true fraternal
charity, consoled him, encouraged him, and promised
him assistance. It seemed a favourable moment for
overcoming the obstinacy of the Count, who was
dangerously ill just then. St. Hugh sent two Priors of
the Carthusian Order to visit him on his sick-bed, and
to beg him to make peace with his spiritual father.
The terms of the message were dictated by St. Hugh
himself, but the immediate results were not encouraging.
The Count gave the two Religious an exceedingly cold
reception and ordered them rudely enough to return
whence they came.

After their departure, however, the words of the holy
Bishop came back to his mind and seemed to leave him

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 475

no peace. The good works he had done in his earlier
life won him no doubt some special grace, and in the
end he repaired his wrong-doing, and received full
absolution. Thanks to this reconciliation, the Bishop
of Geneva was able to return to his Cathedral, and
William I. died in peace in the bosom of the Church. 1

Besides the nobles and prelates who came to visit
the man of God, there were other persons of much
more humble station, who were no less anxious to see
him and listen to his words of loving wisdom. These
were the poor of the parish of St. Peter of Chartreuse.
To be able to receive these with greater facility, and
also to enjoy the society of the lay-brothers for a short
time, St. Hugh spent some days at the " Correrie,"
or lower house. There he was delighted to see his
old friends, who were equally delighted to be recognized
by him. He welcomed them affectionately, chatted
familiarly and graciously about their affairs, putting
himself completely on an equality with them, after
the example of his Divine Master. If it had not been
for his religious habit, he might have been taken for
one of them. His hand was opened as widely as his
heart ; he made his poor friends happy with a generous
alms, the value of which was doubled by the kind
words which accompanied the gift. The former
Procurator of the Grande Chartreuse was found to be
just as simple, as compassionate, and as generous, as
they remembered him to have been twenty-five years
before.

If the poor found him unchanged, we may be quite
sure that he had not altered his manner to his old
friends the lay-brothers. As in former days, they were
never weary of listening to his exhortations. They

1 Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 14 ; Anna 1. Ord. Cartus, vol. iii. p. 307.
Cf. Histoire de I ' Eglise de Genlve, Par. M. le Chanoine Fleury, vol. i.
p. 76.

476 AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE.

found them as full as ever of vigour and tenderness, of
devotion and spiritual discernment, united to the most
practical common sense. On his side also, St. Hugh
was greatly edified by their regularity and fervour. He
loved to make them speak of the virtues of their state
of life, and found precious food for his own soul in their
conversation. He especially took pleasure in listening
to those who, after having frequented the broad way of
the world, had left all things to enter upon the narrow
path of perfection, and were looking forward in all con-
fidence to their final reward in Heaven. There were
many amongst their number who were evidently draw-
ing near to the end of this life ; and the joyous hope
which shone on their countenances and was expressed
in their words, found an echo in the heart of the holy
Bishop, who felt himself more and more detached from
earth, and drawn towards the City of the Blessed.

But the time was at last come for him to leave this
happy solitude, with all its consolations, and to take up
once more the burden of his episcopal duties. The
evening before his departure, in the presence of Dom
Jancelin and all the monks, he handed over to the
Father Sacristan the most precious treasure he
possessed. This was a large collection of relics which
he had procured at different times and in various ways,
and which he preserved in a silver reliquary, used by
him in the consecration of churches. No gift could
have been more acceptable to the Carthusians, who
profess a traditional veneration for the saints and for
their sacred remains. This particular present had all
the more value, because it was bestowed by one who
was himself so saintly, and in whose case it was not
difficult to foresee that the day was not far off when his
own relics would probably be added to these now
offered for their veneration.

One treasure of great price St. Hugh still retained.

AT THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE. 477

This was a gold ring, which he called his sacramental
ring, because he always used it in ordinations. In the
place ordinarily occupied by a seal or a precious stone,
he had had a little reliquary fitted, which contained
some of his choicest acquisitions. 1 He was on the point
of leaving this also at the Grande Chartreuse, but was
reminded that he had promised it to Our Lady of
Lincoln. So, in its place, he ordered that a reliquary
of gold, ornamented with precious stones, should be
sent from his Cathedral Church to his old fellow-monks.
His chaplain tells us that he, as St. Hugh's executor,
fulfilled this order after the death of the Saint.

Then came the last farewells, and St. Hugh parted
from his brothers of the Grande Chartreuse for the last
time on earth. On the morrow, he again descended the
mountain, invoking the favour of God and scattering
his loving benedictions on the solitude he loved so well.

1 In a long digression, St. Hugh's biographer speaks of the manner in
which the Saint acquired some of his most precious relics. The ring of
gold contained a tooth of St. Benedict, which had been sent to the Bishop
of Lincoln by the Abbot of Fleury-sur- Loire. When they were thinking
of sending for the goldsmith to insert this tooth in the little reliquary, the
man himself appeared and said he knew that he was wanted for this
purpose, as it had been revealed to him in a mysterious drearn. The Abbey
of Fecamp was believed to possess one of the bones of St. Mary Magdalen.
[The Bishop himself, when putting the relic to his lips to kiss it, boldly and
undisguisedly bit off two fragments to add to his treasures. When
remonstrated with by the ecclesiastics standing round for what seemed to
them an act of irreverence, he defended himself by saying that no relic
was so sacred as the Body and Blood of Christ which he touched both
with his fingers and his teeth every day in the Mass.] At Peterborough,
an arm of St. Oswald, King and Martyr, was preserved. It was still
covered with skin and tinged with blood, as though it had just been cut
off. St. Hugh took a portion of one of the sinews from this relic and
placed it in his ring. (Magna Vita, bk. v. ch. 14.)

478 THE MIRACLES OF ST. ANTHONY.

NOTE TO BOOK IV. CHAPTER III.

The veracity of the author of the Magna Vita is a
matter of such primary importance in the study of the
life of St. Hugh, that it seems desirable to make some
fuller reference to the marvellous account he has left
of the miracles worked by St. Anthony. It might easily
be supposed that, despite the very high opinion of
his truthfulness expressed by Mr. Dimock and other
authorities, an exception had perhaps to be made for
his account of miraculous events, and that Abbot Adam,
like some other mediaeval chroniclers, threw sobriety
and common sense to the winds the moment he was
face to face with occurrences presumed to be super-
natural. A little examination, however, of the details
which are given in the Magna Vita only confirms instead
of shaking our confidence in the writer's accuracy. It
is by no means necessary to believe that St. Hugh and
his chaplain were really the witnesses at St. Antoine
of "hundreds, nay, a countless multitude" of real
miracles, but that they were spectators of extraordinary
phenomema, which, even now to the non-medical
reader, sound hardly credible, there is no possible
reason to doubt. The description indeed of the "sacred
fire" which we owe to St. Hugh's chaplain, is con-
spicuously more full and precise than that of any other
mediaeval chronicler who alludes to the disease, 1 and
does credit alike to his retentive memory,' 2 and to his

1 Most of these will be found cited by Fuchs, Das heilige Feucr im
MitteLittcr in Hecker's Annalen for January, 1834, and by Laveran in
Dechambre's Dictionnaire Encycloptdiqiie des Sciences Mtdicales, art. ' ' Feu
sacre\ "

2 We may reasonably assume that this chapter, like the rest of the
fifth book of tin- .l/</; r //,/ Vita, was written in the beginning of tin- VIMI
1213 (cf. Magna Vita, p. 290), that is, more than twelve years after the
visit to St. Antoine.

THE MIRACLES OF ST. ANTHONY. 479

power of observation. To understand what follows it
will be well to quote his account a little more in detail.

" In all these miracles," says the Magna Vita, "the
most marvellous feature is this. When the fire has
been extinguished in the sufferer's limbs, the flesh or the
skin, or any member which this consuming disease has
gradually eaten away, is never in any case restored.
But what is more extraordinary, when this raging con-
flagration has destroyed the limb and spared nothing
but the bare bone, there is given to the maimed parts
that are left, such health and soundness (sanitas et
soliditas cicatricibus ipsis residui corporis tanta confertur) that
you may see numbers of ail ages and of both sexes
with their arms consumed as far as the elbows or the
shoulders, or their legs worn away up to and above
the knees, still showing as much vigour as if they
were in perfect health (tanqnam sanissimos multa alacritate
pollere). So fully does the virtue of the Saint com-
pensate the loss of the parts which are destroyed by
the soundness of those that are preserved, that even
the delicate internal organs, exposed though they are
sometimes, the skin and flesh being stripped from the
very ribs, do not readily suffer from cold or any
other injury. The traces of the wounds are horribly
apparent, but he who has been wounded suffers no
pain. To all who look upon them they serve as a
motive for fear as well as a spur to devotion."

The witness furthur tells us that in nearly all cases
the cure is worked by St. Anthony within seven days.
If no relief is felt before that time the malady is
generally fatal.

The disease thus minutely described, which in the
middle ages repeatedly swept certain districts of France
and Germany, has now happily almost disappeared,
owing to the cessation in our time of the causes which
produced it. There seems no doubt that the " sacred

480 THE MIRACLES OF ST. ANTHONY.

fire " is identical with the gangrenous affection scientifi-
cally known as ergotism, and resulting from the use of
rye bread in bad and wet seasons when the grain is in
a diseased condition. Ergotism is caused by the
poisonous effects of ergot, 1 a fungoid growth occurring
in certain cereals and especially in rye, and it is obvious
that the imperfect agriculture and the rude methods of
preparation employed in the middle ages must con-
siderably have increased the likelihood of the prevalence
of such a malady. A few isolated outbreaks' 2 have been
known in modern times, sufficient for Heusinger 3 and
others to be able to identify the gangrenous ergotism, 4
which undoubtedly is sometimes produced by the use
of diseased grain, with the " sacred fire " of the early
chroniclers. 5 I may leave the medical description to a
distinguished modern authority.

" It is almost exclusively among the peasantry that
symptoms of ergotism have been seen, and among
children particularly. The attack usually began with
intense pains in the legs or feet, causing the victims to

1 Ergot. (French, ergot, a spur of a cock.) A name given to the fungoid
growth, being the sclerotium of claviceps purpurea, within the paleee of the
common rye, from its likeness to a cock's spur. A similar growth is found
in other gramineous plants such as wheat and maize. (Sydcnham Society's
Dictionary. )

2 There is said to have been an epidemic of this kind in Lorraine and
Burgundy in the winter of 18141815, and another, though much less
serious, in 1855. Between the years 1770 and 1777, eight thousand people
are said to have perished of this disease in the same part of France. (See
Heusinger, pp. 1517.) I am here speaking only of the gangrenous
ergotism.

3 Studien iiber den Ergotismus, 1856, pp. i 13.

4 There is another sort of ergotism, the convulsive variety, which springs
from the same cause but produces a sort of St.Vitus' dance. It is known
in German as Kriebelkrankhcit.

5 Cf. Journal dc r Institut Historique, 1841, p. 37, " Recherches sur
1'Origine de la Maladie nomm6e Feu des Ardents au Moyen Age," par
V. M. de Moussy. It would seem, however, from the researches of
Laveran, that the feu sacri is not to be identified with the/<r des ardents,
though the two are commonly confused.

THE MIRACLES OF ST. ANTHONY. 481

writhe and scream. A fire seemed to burn between the
flesh and the bones, . . . the surface of the body being
all the while cold as ice. Sometimes the skin of the
affected limbs became livid and black ; now and then
large blebs, or blisters, arose upon it, as in bad kinds
of erysipelas. Gangrene, or sloughing of the extre-
mities, followed ; a foot or a hand fell off, or the flesh of
a whole limb was destroyed down to the bone by a
process which began in the deeper textures. The spon-
taneous separation of a hand or foot was, on the whole,
a good sign for the recovery of the patient. Such was
the ignis sacev, 1 oj^ignis S*.Antonii, which figures promi-
nently, I am told, in the French legends of saints, and
of which epidemics are recorded in the French mediaeval
chronicles." 2

Dr. Creighton, with good reason, as it seems to me,
considers that no adequate proof is forthcoming of the
prevalence of any such malady in England during the
middle ages, at any rate on a large scale. 3 But he refers
at the same time to a very interesting sporadic case
which occurred at Wattisham, Suffolk, in 1762, and
which is described in Philosophical Transactions. A family,
who it was afterwards proved had been living upon
bread made entirely of damaged wheat, were attacked
one after another by symptoms which exactly agree
with what St. Hugh and his chaplain witnessed at
St. Antoine. A violent pain, which one of the sufferers
described to be as if dogs were gnawing her, was
followed by the blackening of the extremities and the

1 It has been suggested to me by a medical friend that the name
" sacred Jlrc" is probably owing to the blackened, we might almost say the
charred, appearance of the extremities affected. In German it is note-
worthy that the word for gangrene is brand, which etymologically must
mean a burning. Thus gangrana senilis is rendered by Brand der alien.

2 Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, vol. i. p. 54.

3 There seems to be some evidence for the existence of occasional
outbreaks of convulsive ergotism, but not of the gangrenous variety.

FF

482 THE MIRACLES OF ST. ANTHONY.

separation of the flesh from the bones. After which
returning health seems to have left them almost imme-
diately in a perfectly normal state. A medical witness
states :

" I was exact in my inquiries about each particular
person. By what I could learn from them in about four,
five, or six days, 1 the diseased leg began to grow les